Czech Airlines will continue to operate flights to Zagreb during the winter season, thus making it easy for Czech tourists to visit the Advent in Zagreb events, which many Czech bus operators are also interested in.

After resuming direct flights between Zagreb and Prague in late April, Czech Airlines have continued flights during the winter period. Zagreb and Prague will be directly connected on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with departure times in the early hours of the morning, while return flights from Prague to Zagreb will be available on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with the departure time at 10 p.m.

Instead of using turboprop ATR 72 or 42 aircraft, the Czech airline will now fly the route with Airbus A319 aircraft, which will shorten the flight time to just an hour and make it easy and simple for Czech tourists to visit Advent in Zagreb, which many Czech bus operators are also interested in.

The connection between Zagreb and Prague is the oldest Czech Airlines route, with the first flight dating back to 1930. The route was cancelled in 2012 due to the restructuring of Czech Airlines, and it was reinstated in late April this year.

Is there a more romantic destination for a wedding? The number of international weddings held every year is on the increase and is it any wonder when the historic Old City offers such romantic surroundings.

Today these “newly-weds” took advantage of the mild weather and the Stradun to record their big day. They even had the good fortune of the fact that the fire brigade was using a lift to install the Christmas decorations and one of the photographers used this to get some unique photos for their album.

The Republic of Finland is the latest country to have diplomatic representation in Dubrovnik. On the 4th of November the Ambassador of Finland, H.E. Mr. Timo Rajakangas, officially opened the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Finland and announced that Tilda Bogdanovic will serve as the Honorary Consul.

The day marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic connections between Croatia and Finland. At the opening ceremony, which was attended by the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, Maria Lohela, the Ambassador commented on the strong ties between the two countries and wished Bogdanovic a bright future in her new role.

The Prefect of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Nikola Dobroslavic, and the Mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahusic, also spoke at the opening.

Dubrovnik is getting ready for the Christmas celebrations. Today the first of the festive decorations were installed along over the main street through the historic Old City of Dubrovnik, the Stradun.

The Dubrovnik fire brigade helped with their lifting equipment to raise the lights over the Stradun. The second phase of lighting the Stradun will take place tomorrow and it is expected that the lights will be illuminated on the 18th of November.

"Croatia and Finland have had good political relations for 25 years, but their cooperation needs to be strengthened on the economic front," were the words of Bozo Petrov, the Croatian Parliament speaker after a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Maria Lohele a few days ago.

The Finnish Parliament speaker Lohele who was on her first visit to Croatia said that the two countries had a lot in common, shared many challenges and possibilities especially in the field of economy. She also emphasized that Croatia as the newest member of the EU was a country of many opportunities and she hoped that her visit would help improve relations between these two countries at the parliamentary level and at the business one.

In mid-December 2012 the Finnish parliament ratified with a vast majority of votes the Croatia's EU accession treaty thus Finland was the 20th country to approve Croatia's accession to the European Union, without waiting for the European Commission's final monitoring report in March 2013.

At the meeting with her Croatian counterpart Maria Lohele also added that Croatia was an increasingly popular tourist destination for Finnish tourists and expressed hope that those trends would continue and that more Croatians would opt for Finland as their tourist destination in the future. Last year 68,000 Finnish tourists visited Croatia.

The Finnish Parliament speaker Maria Lohele

“I didn’t even know that there was a Japanese restaurant in Croatia, let alone in Dubrovnik,” answered the boy with a puzzled look on his face. “What do you think Japanese tourists eat when they come to Dubrovnik then,” I answered, trying not to laugh out loud. “Well, I guess...homemade, local Croatian food,” he answered without too much thought.

So this was going to be the first time that this ten-year-old, the son of my friend, was going to try a new international cuisine...this was going to be fun. “Is there really a Japanese restaurant in Dubrovnik,” he still wasn’t convinced. “Yes, of course there is, in fact there are more than one,” I replied. “So does that mean that we have lots of tourists from China, oh I mean Japan,” another question, and the mixture between China and Japan was going to be another theme of the evening. “What would you eat if you went on holiday to Japan then,” I was enjoying his train of thought. Without pausing to think he answered “Rice,” and then added “And maybe pasta.” He was obviously under the impression that all Japanese live off a fixed diet of rice, well he was half right.

“Do they have soup,” was the next question as we drove to the restaurant. This was a child raised on a strict diet of soup, main course and dessert. “We can ask the Japanese chef when we arrive,” I lied a little bit, for the chef wasn’t Japanese, but it was a white lie and he smiled. “Do you think they have čevapi,” now I was joking with him a little. “No, but maybe they have octopus or fish,” he said in a serious manner.

As we sat down at the table the first impression that hit him were the chops sticks. “How do you use these…I need a lesson before I can eat!” he exclaimed. I guess he had realized that Japanese don’t eat soup with them. If you have never eaten with chop sticks before then they do take a little getting used to. He took one stick in one hand and one in the other as if he was going to play the drums. These little wooden sticks fascinated him and far from just giving up he tried, and tried and tried. He kind of succeeded in the end, but in a way of spearing the food with one of the sticks rather than the traditional pinching motion.

“I don’t recognize anything on this menu, do they have a Croatian menu,” he asked. In fact he did already have a Croatian menu it was just that the pictures were alien to him.

“What’s sushi,” was the next question. This was one that we kind of avoided, better not to freak him out before he tried anything. We ordered some sushi rolls for starters and to his praise he tried to “catch” the rolls with his sticks. It was a messy affair. He was a serial killer and the chop sticks were his weapon of choice. The rolls soon disintegrated.

It is always nice to open a young person’s eyes to a new culture, new tastes, to broaden their horizons. “OK, that was the starter and now the main course, would you like chicken or beef,” I asked. Again he stared at the menu in disbelief. “Can I order,” he answered. The waiter appeared again. We all ordered and then Marin asked the waiter “Can I have chicken, but do you have it in a Croatian way,” he asked. We all stopped ourselves from bursting out in laughter. And in a move to calm him the waiter answered “It is chicken and rice with vegetables, I am sure you will like it.” He seemed to understand. “See I told you. The Chinese only eat rice,” he was pleased with himself now.

He reached for his mobile and opened his Pokémon game, maybe he was expecting to find these Japanese characters in their restaurant, maybe they were all hungry. The main course didn’t require chops sticks, to his obvious relief. “Do the Japanese have desserts,” was the final question. To which the answer was yes but he plumped for a chocolate and banana cake instead. So many new tastes and flavours, and to his credit he tried them all without flinching. “So tell me what are your impressions,” I asked. He rubbed his chin like an old man thinking. “I am glad I wasn’t born in Japan,” he answered.

Although I did find out a few days later from his mum that he was impressed with the food and hadn’t stopped boasting to his friends that he had eaten Japanese food...or maybe he said Chinese food.

Website The Daily Wiz made a map of the world based on alcohol consumption, according to data of World Health Organisation. Croatia made it to the top 5! It's been placed on fourth place out of 186 countries with 12.19 liters/person per year. 

Belarusians are the unlucky winners when it comes to alcohol consumption, followed by Lithuania, Czech Republic, Croatia and Austria.

When it comes to type of the alcoholic beverages, Croatians prefer wine, on the second place is beer and on the last – spirits.

                                                                                                                                                       The Daily Wiz 

There is an increase in tourist traffic in Dubrovnik in October, and according to the program from registration and degistration of tourists eVisitor and marine tourist traffic, Dubrovnik had 90,542 tourist arrivals, 17 percent more than last year, and 306,859 overnight stays, which is 24 percent more than last year. 

In the first ten months Dubrovnik had 972,663 arrivals and that makes a total of 11 percent more arrivals than in the same period last year. There was 3,401,223 overnight stays, an increase of 13 percent compared to 2015. Including marine tourist traffic, there was a total 996,035 arrivals, which is 7 percent more than last year, and 3,631,619 overnight stays, which is a total of 10 percent compared to the same period last year.

Top-list of countries from which Dubrovnik tourists came from 1 January to 31 October 2016, is led by the traditional guests from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, USA, Spain, Croatian, Sweden, Finland, Australia and Italy.