Sunday, 09 February 2025
Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas - The editor and big chief of The Dubrovnik Times. Born in the UK he has been living and working in Dubrovnik since 1998, yes he is one of the rare “old hands.” A unique insight into both British and Croatian life and culture, Mark is often known as just “Englez” or Englishman. He is a traveller, a current affairs freak and a huge AFC Wimbledon fan.

Email: mark.thomas@dubrovnik-times.com

Even though the warmer summer days are behind us the Adriatic Sea is still warm enough to enjoy, with temperatures measured yesterday at 21 degrees Celsius. And according to the latest research by the Department of Environmental Protection and Nature the sea is not only warm but it is also clean. The 115 beaches of the county were tested to make sure that they comply with the requirements of the “Regulation on the Quality of Bathing Water.”

From the 115 beaches in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County 107 passed with the highest rating, excellent quality rating. The sea water quality in Veliki Žali passed with good quality, whilst the beaches of Villa Dubrovnik and Park Gjivović in Dubrovnik, the Hotel Osmine in Plat, Broce and Supavo in Ston and Portina and Ušće u Ploče.

Croatian president Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic will meet with the Queen Elizabeth II in London for the first time. Her husband Jakov will also be present. 

The conversation should take about 45 minutes and apparently they won't talk about Brexit, but about the general political happenings in the world.

When it comes to visiting the Queen, there are some special rules. The Queen must be addressed with ''Your Majesty'', accompanied with the direct contact with eyes. Later in conversation she must be called ''Madame''. President Grabar-Kitarovic doesn't have to bow, since she's a head of state and they are at the same rank, but the first gentleman will bow slightly and shake hands with the Queen.

This meeting is happening seven months after a two-day visit to Croatia by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, as a part of their tour of the region. The visit had no political dimension, but was focused on strenghtening the connection between two countries and their citizens.

While the daily temperature in the Sibenik area these days measuring around 15°C, the sea temperature is much warmer, around 21°C. Nevertheless, the river Krka is certainly a few degrees colder, but these brave tourists visiting Croatia didn’t seem to mind.

''We are freezing, but everything is great because we are in Croatia'', the beautiful Kimmi Stacey wrote on her Instagram profile, after she had taken a dip with her friends in the river Krka a few days ago.

According to her posted photos, Stacey who lives in Hawaii, but is currently in Germany as part of the student exchange program, has already visited many European cities from Amsterdam to Paris. But she is thrilled with Croatia.

''Hawaii, you have competition! Croatia is a magical place'', wrote the young Hawaiian girl under photos which show her and her friends in their swimming costumes on a deserted beach in Split and Veli Drvenik where they tried out in diving.

cold krka 2

Dubrovnik artist and captain, Stjepko Mamic, received a pleasant surprise this week when the French broadcaster Voyage TV (FOX) asked him if they could record an episode in his studio in Dubrovnik.

“In each city they visit the producers chose a place and person that best represents their city,” explained Mamic. “When they arrived to film in my art studio they were very relaxed and we had lots of fun,” we added.

This special report about Dubrovnik will be released on French television in two months time and is sure to create interest on the French market for 2017.

mamic french tv 2

The weekend of rain was only a taster of what was to come as a week of unsettled weather is predicted for Dubrovnik.

Rain, storms and south winds are forecast for Dubrovnik this week as the summer sunshine comes to a close. Highs will reach 20 degrees this week with Thursday and Friday expected to be the warmest and clearest days of the week.

Next weekend also looks like wet and windy with storms and heavy downpours predicted. Certainly not a week to be without your umbrella.

Thanks to the record breaking figures of all Croatian airports this year, air carriers already operating over Croatian skies have announced more flights in the near future.

From next year Norwegian Air Shuttle airline will be introducing two additional weekly rotations on the route Split – Helsinki.

The Norwegian airline Norwegian Air Shuttle in their summer timetable for 2017 has announced the reinforcement of the route between Split and Helsinki. The existing three rotations a week every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will be reinforced with two additional rotations every Wednesday and Friday. A total of five rotations a week will connect Split to Helsinki every day except Mondays and Sundays.

The line will begin to operate from the start of the summer season flight schedule, i.e. on the 28 of March 2017, which means that compared with this year's season the next one will begin with operations two weeks earlier.

Aircraft operating on this route will be the Boeing 737-800 from the company's fleet daughter company the Norwegian Air International which is registered in Ireland.

 

Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra will have a concert 'Classical Vs. Film Music' on Tuesday, 11th of October in the Rector's Palace, starting at 9 pm. 

In the first, classical part of the concert cellist Vid Veljak will be presented and the concert will be conducted by Veton Marevci.The audience will have the opportunity to listen Divertmento in D major, KV 136 W. A. Mozart and Concerto for cello and orchestra no. 2 in D major, Hob VIIb / 2 J. Haydn.

Although young, cellist Vid Veljak is the winner of numerous competitions including international competitions Antonio Janigro in Porec and Distant Chords in Split, and in 2015 he was a finalist of the prestigious Cello Competition "Guilhermina Suggia" (Porto, Portugal). As a soloist he has performed accompanied by the famous the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Zagreb Soloists, Rijeka Chamber Orchestra, HRT Symphony Orchestra and the Zagreb Philharmonic. At the concert on Tuesday he will perfome with the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra for the first time.
In year 2010/2011 Veton Marevci enrolled in orchestra conducting at the Music Academy in Zagreb, in the class of maestro Uros Lajovic. In seasons 2011 to 2013 he was one of the conductors of the Zagreb Youth Orchestra. In early 2015, he conducts Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time, followed by a year perform duties of assistant conductor of the same orchestra, performing two versions of Orff's Carmina Burana.

In the second part of the concert Orchestra will perform the popular film music, more precisely theme songs of some of the most popular films and TV series such as Titanic, The Godfather, Pirates of the Caribbean, James Bond, Game of Thrones, the famous works of H. Mancini, C. Santana and others. This program by the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra began to run over the past year and it gathers and inspires many visitors.

European Coastal Airlines, a scheduled seaplane service that was launched in Croatia two years ago, has suspended all operations until the business environment becomes “trustworthy.” All flights from ECA were halted in August this year after the company’s Air Operators Certificate was revoked after an audit into the safety procedures of the German owned airline. A statement from ECA read that “we will no longer invest any funds into the Croatian seaplane project until the administrational situation has been resolved, giving us the opportunity to operate in a safe and trustworthy marketplace.”

According to reports on the specialised website EX-Yu Aviation the seaplane company has tried on several occasions to solve the problem with the Croatian government and other authorities but had become caught in the complicated red tape and bureaucracy. “The shareholders of European Coastal Airlines do not see any alternative than to suspend operations for the time being. This comes at a high cost of almost every operational job within our company, however, we have been left with no other choice to protect the investments implemented until today,” added ECA.

The launch of ECA was generally greeted with enthusiasm, the seaplanes connected islands and coastal destinations with regular flights at affordable prices. The company invested into seaports and infrastructure in Croatia, a total of around 22 million Euros, and had plans to expand the service all along the Croatia coastline. This year ECA had even started international flights to Italy and Montenegro. Getting the business off the ground in Croatia was a mammoth task and took ECA around 14 years to get up and running, further proof of the ultra-complicated paperwork. "It comes with the greatest regret to inform the public about these developments, nevertheless we feel the necessity to make everyone understand the situation we are in", concluded ECA.

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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