The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior III was spotted sailing into Dubrovnik today. The ship, which was christened on October the 14th 2011, has been sailing in the Croatian Adriatic for the past few days highlighting the problem of plastic waste contamination in the sea.

In particular the organisation has pointed out the problem that the Dalmatian islands have with plastic waste, especially the island of Mljet. The vast majority of this plastic waste is brought to Croatian shores from Albania and Montenegro by currents.

The Rainbow Warrior III is designed to be one of the "greenest" ships afloat, and to showcase this quality, it runs primarily using wind power, with a 55 m mast system which carries 1255 sq meters of sail and is backed up by a "state-of-the-art hybrid".

Rainbow Warrior III in Dubrovnik - Photo Zeljko Tutnjevic 

Summer and the heat have quite clearly turned a few drivers in Dubrovnik completely mad! This Polish coach was spotted doing a U-turn on a very busy Dubrovnik road. The driver managed to block four lanes of traffic coming in and out of the city with this incredibly stupid manoeuvre.

Apart from this idiotic turn being completely illegal the driver was trying to do a three-point-turn on an area of road that has a high flow of traffic and is the main road into the city. Sumer madness on the roads of Dubrovnik has begun.

On Sunday the 16th of July at 8.00am the start involves a 1,000 metres swim in the bay of Kupari, followed by a 5,000 metre running section around the seaside promenade of Kupari, Srebreno and Mlini and back to Kupari. For the first time ever the sport of aquathlon is coming to Zupa!

The sport of aquathlon consists of a continuous, two-stage race involving swimming followed by running. “For the first time in Dubrovnik, the Akvatlon League started, and it is with great pleasure that I can announce that Zupa will host one of the rounds,” commented Made Zeravica one of the organisers. Adding that “Our goal is to introduce this multisport to people, this is a sport that is increasingly popular in the world. We have excellent conditions and it's time to use them.”

All competitors will take their competition numbers at 07.30 on a parking at the beach in Kupari, prepare and warm up to start the race. The organizer of event, the Dubrovnik Triathlon, invites all citizens, young and old, to participate and entrance is free of charge. If you are interested you can register at www.racecollector.com

The United States government will finance construction of a helicopter-landing site in front of four Croatian hospitals.

At the initiative of its government to participate financially in improving the quality of health care services in Croatia, the US Embassy addressed to the Croatian Ministry of Health six month ago.

This initiative was followed by a request for Croatia to support the realization of the project by co-financing part of the costs, i.e. to pay the VAT and costs of external monitoring of the polygon construction.

The US government will co-finance the project with $450,000, whilst Croatia will participate with 1 million Kunas approved by the Croatian government. According to the words of the Health Minister Milan Kujundzic, the money was already envisaged and provided by this year's state budget.

Therefore, Zagreb's Nova bolnica KB Dubrava, KBC Osijek and two general hospitals in Slavonski Brod and Karlovac will get new helicopter landing sites and significantly improve the quality of their health care services.

In addition, as part of the construction of the helicopter landing sites, special emphasis will be put on ensuring conditions for night landing.

During the first six months of this year, the Croatian National Tourist Board carried out study tours for a total of 348 media representatives, of which 32 were bloggers.

Among them was a blogger from Dubai, Vivek Kukreti (blog http://incelinasheels.com/), who spent nine days visiting Croatian destinations with his girlfriend Nisha Celina, also blogger (blog http://incelinasheels.com/), and Sister Nadije Khan. Although the mentioned bloggers arrived in Croatia in their own arrangements, the Croatian National Tourist Board, in cooperation with National Park Plitvice Lakes, provided support. The blogger Vivek Kukreti has decided to purpose the girl Nisha at Plitvice Lakes, a protected pearl of Croatian tourism that this year attracts visitors from all over the world.

After the successful engagament and the applause from the visitors, the bloggers continued to browse around the park, after which they tried to run the "Pazi Medo" zip line in Rudopolj. During their stay in Croatia the bloggers also visited Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Makarska and other destinations and were simply delighted with their beauty.

-    Croatia is truly a beautiful country with extremely preserved nature. When we saw photos on Instagram's profile "Croatia fulloflife" we simply could not resist and decided to visit as many destinations as possible. We already know that we will certainly return to Croatia next year because we want to find out what we just did not get to see and experience - said bloggers from Dubai.

The City of Zagreb has reported on its official website that the Croatian capital is the sixth capital in the European Union when it comes to daily bicycle transport.

According to a survey carried out by Eurobarometer, the Danish capital of Copenhagen has the highest number of cyclists in a daily traffic (35%), followed by Amsterdam (32%), Berlin (13%), Ljubljana (12%), Helsinki (11%) and Zagreb with 10 percent of bicycle riders on its city roads.

Eurobarometer also points out that riding a bicycle to work or to attend daily chores is unevenly spread across the European Union. Therefore, almost a third of the Dutch go to work by bicycle or use it every day, whilst people on Cyprus, Malta or in Portugal have not adopted this practice yet.

''The city of Zagreb has been implementing planned programs with its systematic strategy in order to introduce bicycle traffic as much as possible in the traffic system and to popularize riding a bicycle as means of public transport. Apart from these programs, the city supports bicycle sports events and numerous associations that promote bicycles as means of public transport, sports and recreation'', explained the City Administration.

Nowadays Zagreb has more than 200,000 active cyclists, out of which 3,000 of them are passing daily by a bike counter called Bike Totem at Stjepan Radic Square.

''Our citizens have 562 bicycle parking spaces on public surfaces and more than 300 kilometres of bicycle lanes at their disposal. At the same time, every new road in the city is built with bicycle lanes as an integral part of the traffic infrastructure, thus Zagreb has become the first city to introduce separated traffic on its roadways'', commented the City Administration.

Finding accommodation in Dubrovnik in the middle of the summer months can prove tricky, and it seems that some guests are taking matters to the extreme. A 32-year-old Australian tourist was caught sleeping on a public bench on the morning of the 13th of July in the Pile area of the city.

Sleeping on a bench may be bad form but it isn’t against the law, however this tourist took it one stage too far as he was sleepy in the nude. The police were called and the young Australian tourist was arrested for disturbance of the peace, he was also in an “alcoholic state” according to the report. He was taken to the court where he was found guilty of disturbing the peace and fined.

Dubrovnik, as of last night, has a new attraction that is sure to interest locals and tourists. The Dubrovnik City Walls are the most popular attraction in the whole of the city with around a million visitors every year. They embrace the entire ancient city and are iconic. Now a part of these very walls is open to the public after 550 years.

The highest point of the defensive walls is the Minčeta Fortress. It is located on the north side of the walls and was named after the Menčetić family, who owned the ground the tower was built on.

Whilst visitors in the past have marvelled at the views over the terracotta roofs of the city from the top of the fortress now you can visit the renovated interior. After a two-year reconstruction period, which cost around 2.5 million Kuna, the interior of Minčeta is open as well as a part of the western walls.

Opening ceremony of Minceta Fortress