Dubrovnik is choking today under a thick fog of orange as south winds have blown up sands from the Sahara. The historic old city is invisible from the observation points, cars and buildings have turned an orange hue and the seas are crashing against the rocks.

“I my sixty years of living in Dubrovnik I have never experienced anything like this before,” explained a local resident to The Dubrovnik Times. “Let’s just hope that it doesn’t start to rain as the whole city will be covered in sand,” he added.

Gale force southerly winds blew overnight and brought with them a thick blanket of sand. Residents woke to find their cars completely covered in yellow, sandy blotches. And during the morning the wind has picked up and made conditions even worse, residents and tourists can be seen shielding their faces and covering their mouths to avoid getting a lungful of sand.

This African sand has almost completely blotted out the sun in Dubrovnik and the while city has an eerie golden glow. Whereas Dubrovnik is recognised all over the world as a destination of mild winters and long hot summers, today Dubrovnik is in a sand storm!

''To be or not to be'' are the world famous words from Hamlet. More interesting is that those very words were spoken so many times on the fort of Lovrjenac as the same fort was used as a stage for one of the most famous Shakespeare's plays. Did you know that among the many Hamlets that have been performed on Lovrijenac was also the Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis?

Fort Lovrjenac, often called ''Dubrovnik's Gibraltar'' is another monumental and impressive fortress outside the city walls at the western side of the city. It rises on a steep cliff about 37 meters high. The chroniclers of Dubrovnik wrote an interesting story about its origin. At the beginning of the 11th century the Venetians intended to build a large fort on the same spot in order to keep Dubrovnik under their power. The people of the city discovered this intention and immediately decided to build a fortress on this almost inaccessible rock in the shortest possible time.

According to the chronicles the building of Lovrjenac was completed in only three months. When the Venetian ships laden with building materials arrived they could do nothing but to admit that they had been outwitted by the citizens of Dubrovnik and returned home to Venice. The fortress has extremely thick walls (4-12 meters) on three sides, the northern, the western and the south-western ones i.e. those facing the direction of a possible enemy attacks. The eastern wall facing the city is only 60 cm thick. Why? Well, this was another of the clever precautions of the government of the Republic of Ragusa. If any of the commanders of the fortress had tried to usurp the power of the city, the Republic could have solved the problem by using heavy artillery from other fortresses and destroying the eastern wall. Thus all possible attempts of this kind would have been defeated.

If you visit Lovrjenac, and I highly recommend that you do, above the entrance gate you'll notice an inscription in Latin ''Non Bene Pro Toto Libertas Venditur Auro'' meaning ''Freedom is not to be sold for all the treasures in the world''.

Lovrjenac Fortress in Dubrovnik 

The Mercedes Benz Global Training 2016 in Dubrovnik is still in full swing in Dubrovnik. The massive event started on the 9th of February in Dubrovnik and is based in two hotel resorts, at Valamar on Babin Kuk and in Radisson in Orasac. Over 15,000 sales staff and coordinators from 120 different countries are expected to pass through Dubrovnik in this global event.

During the Mercedes Global Training several new models will have their European premiere, such as the new C, S and E classes. There have been training events for the participants in the Port of Dubrovnik, at both resorts and also through the streets of the city. Locals have got used to seeing top of the range Mercedes with German number plates driving around.

The Old City of Dubrovnik has been the centrepiece for many of these luxury German cars with a selection of Mercedes exhibited in various attractive positions.

Check out this new video of the Mercedes in the historic old city of Dubrovnik.

Under the command of Captain Marc Masse the first MSC cruise ship for this season arrived at the Port of Dubrovnik this morning. MSC Magnifica, with a crew of 1,000 and carrying 2,400 passengers, will dock in Dubrovnik.

This mega cruise ship will arrive in Dubrovnik every Friday, and from the 26th of May the cruise ship MSC Sinfonia will also start to arrive every Thursday.

It is expected that MSC Cruises will achieve 60 arrivals in Dubrovnik in 2016 and bring a total of 180,000 passengers. The season, this year, will close in early November with the last sailing of MSC Magnifica.

In addition to Dubrovnik, MSC Sinfonia will sail to Split on Sundays and bring a total of 50,000 passengers on 20 different arrivals.

The first day of spring was marked in the Bugenvila restaurant with the hosting of the Goût de France 2016 event. There was a real French colour to the restaurant last night as guests enjoyed a creative menu.

Goût de France 2016 

The Goût de France is an initiative that was organized on the initiative of Alain Ducasse and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development in France. 1,000 chefs on five continents prepared a French evening on the 21st of March, the first day of spring, and ten restaurants in Croatia were hand selected to enter the celebration, the Bugenvila restaurant in Cavtat was amongst this select few.

“The first day of spring symbolises a time of new beginnings, and I think that we have found the right combination in our menu for Goût de France,” commented the founder and co-owner of Bugenvila, Igor Korousic, to The Dubrovnik Times.

Amazing evening in Bugenvila 

Guests were treated to a colourful menu, including a spectacular course of Cotes de Boeuf, smoked Bone Marrow, Morrels, Black Trumpets and Bell Peppers. French cheeses and wines were also on offer in an evening that proved an impressive success.

“We are very pleased with the evening, it is great to see so many guests supporting this worthy Goût de France evening,” concluded Korousic.

Head Chef Lukasz Widomski

Colourful French evening 

Get creative and win a family Easter Lunch at the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera! 

Treat yourself to an Easter lunch at the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera for the whole family. Easter is a time to be with your loved ones, so why not let our five-star hotel take the strain for you this Easter.

We are looking for the best decorated Easter Eggs! Paint them, write messages on them, get creative, and send a photo to us for a chance of entering this valuable competition. You can add your Easter Egg photos to any of The Dubrovnik Times social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Just don’t forget to tag them with #sheratondubrovniktimes the winner will be announced on the 26th of March.

The competition is open from midday Tuesday 22nd of March and closes at midday Saturday 26th of March.

Win this Easter with The DUbrovnik Times and the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera! 

''Houston, we have a problem'' is one of the selected movies in the Viewpoints section of Tribeca Film Festival. If you didn't hear about it – it's a docu-fiction movie, a co-production of Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic and Qatar.

This is a big deal for sure, especially if you know that Tribeca is one of the most important festivals of independent film in the USA. It was founded by Robert De Niro with partners in 2012, and the 15th edition of the festival is held in New York from 13th to 24th of April.

''Houston, we have a problem'' is a debut film by the young Slovenian director Žiga Virc, who explores the myth of the secret multi-million contract in which the USA bought the Yugoslavian space program in the early 1960's. With archive footage Virc goes back to the time of the Cold War, the space race and NASA's moon landing.

He combines reality and fiction intriguingly, and leaves it to the viewer to decide what is real and what is fake. In the movie, famous Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek asks a key question: ''What is the truth?''

If you're intrigued, don't miss the official trailer!

The flights between Dubrovnik and Tehran that were due to take place from the 18th of March have been cancelled. The airline Limitless Airways had planned to operate a total of nine flights between Dubrovnik and the Iranian capital from the 18th of March till the 1st of April, however all these flights have been cancelled.

According to a report by the specialised aviation website Ex-Yu Aviation there has been no official reason from the airline for the cancellation of these flights, a statement simply read that they had been stopped because of “administrative reasons.” 

Qeshm Airlines is operating flights to the Serbian capital, Belgrade Airport, and the first of these landed last week. However this was a one off charter flight.