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Mayors of Ostrava municipalities visited friends in Czech Beseda Rijeka
Every year in September, at the time of Opatija tennis tournament, mayors of Ostrava municipalities traditionally spend a part of their vacation in Rijeka. This year, they came with their wives: Mr. Lubomír Karpíšek, mayor of Moravian Ostrava and Privoz, Mr. Petr Kutěj, mayor of Vítkovice, and Mr. Novák, an entrepreneur from Ostrava.
On September 27, our friends from Ostrava visited the Czech community in Rijeka – members of the Czech Beseda – and visited the building of the Czech Culture Center in Rijeka.
At the Pehlin Culture Home, already called "the old home" by Czech people of Rijeka, about thirty members of Czech Beseda came to see their old friends. Guests first went to see the building of the future "Czech Home," and later joined us for dinner at the Pehlin home. Mayors were also greeted by representative for Czech and Slovak minorities in Croatian Parliament Mrs. Zdenka Čuhnjil, who came to Rijeka to discuss common interests with our guests from Ostrava.
Mr. Lubomír Karpíšek thanked his hosts for a warm welcome, recollected his first encounter with Czech people of Rijeka, when we announced the beginning of building work on the new Czech Home. He was delighted by everything they saw now: not only that the work is in progress, but also by the amount of work already done, and the size and looks of the building. Ms. Karpíšek wished us lots of success in all our activities on behalf of all guests and his own, and expressed hope for future cooperation and many more gatherings in Rijeka as well as in Ostrava.
During the dinner it was obvious that everybody felt great and had fun over conversation and Czech songs. The members of our choir started the singing, and were later joined by everyone else. The harmony in singing well-known Czech and Moravian songs speaks of the good understanding and friendship between us and our guests.
We are grateful to our friends from Ostrava for their gifts and nice words expressing their excitement with our work and building of our Home, for which they, as we all know, made a priceless contribution. We are looking forward to meeting our friends from Ostrava again.
