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

“And can you now pass me your driving license,” added the police officer in the near darkness. This was going from bad to worse; it was only the next step in a list of things that I was missing. To be fair it wasn’t my entire fault, well 90 percent, but that isn’t 100 percent. They say that bad things, and maybe good things, always come in threes. This was definitely the case as my driving experience last week proved.

It wasn’t that late at night, around nine o’clock in the evening, when I was pulled over with a wave of a police sign. I slid down the window and the moment the large policeman asked “license and registration please,” I knew I had a problems. I was one of those standard police checks, the ones they run every now and again to catch unsuspecting drivers without their seatbelts on or blind drunk.

“Ah, I have a slight problem,” I said to the officer. The problem began last week when I took a rent-a-car on Mljet. I had, as if often the case, forgotten to take everything out of the car when I returned it…well I forgot my driving license. “Well my license is on Mljet, well not on Mljet but in another bag, you see I…” I started to explain, realizing that I was probably sounding drunk. “Can I just stop you, do you have your driving license or not,” said the officer. “Well yes and no, yes I have it, meaning it isn’t on Mljet, but no I don’t have it with me,” I was sounding even more drunk. “So the answer to my question is no,” said the officer. “Well yes, the answer is no, although I can go and get it as I only live 200 metres away,” I said.

I wasn’t being dishonest. This police check was set within a stone’s throw of my house. “Did you also know that it is legal requirement to wear your seatbelt,” he started. This was strange I always wear my seatbelt, but then I saw he was directing his question at my mother-in-law in the back seat. “Excuse me Sir!,” came an ear deafening cry from the back seat. The officer made a motion, like he was playing pantomime, to her to do her seatbelt up. “What does he want,” she asked me. I could see that this could take some time. “Is it the law to wear a seat belt in the back seat then,” added my wife. Oh no, this was turning into a full blown debate.

“If it wasn’t the law then why would I mention it,” came the reply. “I knew it was the law in the front but not the back,” argued my wife even more. I just wanted to get away from the situation; we had been waiting for ten minutes now having a discussion with a police officer who was standing almost in the middle of the road. “Is he talking to me,” came the familiar voice from the back seat. She still didn’t have her seat belt on.

And just as the conversation was still unfolding, with the police officer slowly losing patience, my wife arguing why people didn’t have to wear seatbelts on buses and my mother-in-law struggling to find her seat belt, I heard a familiar noise...beep, beep, beep, and one of my headlights stopped working. The third offence, three strikes and you are out.

“Either you will have to drive in the day or you will need to fix that tomorrow,” said the officer, he probably thought he was in the middle of a comedy show. “I will fix the light, find my driving license and promise to tie my mother-in-law to the seat the next time I drive her,” I said hoping he would feel sorry for me and let me go. “I found it!!” exclaimed my mother-in-law from behind me. She had actually only found the belt and not the hole to stick it into. Raised eyebrows from the officer, “you can’t just hang onto it, find where to secure it.” This was going to take a long time, it would have been much quicker if she had just got out of the car and walked home, I thought to myself. Again the officer looked at me, there seemed to be a look of sorrow in his eyes, as if he felt sorry for me. “I have to ask this question, have you been drinking tonight,” he looked at me as if to say I wouldn’t blame you if you had. “No, not tonight but maybe when I get home I will have a couple,” came my answer. And just then the car bounced from left to right...”done it, its in.” Yes she had found the right place to fix the seat belt.

From the three offences I had committed one had been solved. Well one offence, leaving my license on Mljet, the other was not my fault and the last one had happened when I was stopped. All I can say in my defence it that we were lucky to get such an understanding officer, and if he ever reads this I would like to take this opportunity to say sorry for taking up so much of his time.

The Small Onofrio Fountain, one of the iconic symbols of the historic Old City of Dubrovnik was damaged today in a freak accident. According to reports from eyewitnesses a tourist leaned on the edge of the 15th century fountain and caused one of the heavy stone slabs that form the outer rim to come crashing to the ground.

Thankfully the weighty stone didn’t injure anyone as it smashed into pieces of the ground. Although the incident is believed to be an accident the police are investigating the matter further and the Friends of Dubrovnik Antiquities, the organisation that looks after the City Walls and other monuments, have also been on the scene.

The Small Onofrio Fountain, located at the end of the Stradun, is a magnet for tourists and in the warmer summer months is a source of much needed refreshment, and quite often small children climb on this edge to reach one of the fountains. The fountain was designed by the Italian architect Onofrio Della Cava and was constructed between 1440 and 1442.

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Third day of the Good Food festival was really spicy with the presentation of the tourism and gastronomy of India, with the support of the Embassy of India in Croatia. The event took place in the Lenga Restaurant, Hotel Palace and was a real treat for all those who like the taste of international cuisine.

A guest chef was Stephan Lobo, an established Indian chef with German address. He was friendly, introduced himself to the visitors and then took them trough his interesting experience from India, Dubai and Germany.

-Don't ask me if it's spicy! – joked Lobo about the served dishes, adding that all the chefs that have been working with him last couple of days needed time to adapt themselves to the spices. Every meal was different, with different spices, so the visitors had a real Indian journey.
Sandeep Kumar, ambassador of India in Croatia, also came to the event and got an applause because of his well spoken Croatian. He invited all the visitors to be ambassadors to connect Goa and Dubrovnik, two towns that share the same patron saint – Saint Blasius.

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The Croatian Tourist Board has reported on a project ''Uzivaj – une odyseée dalmateé'', which has been carried out by a French nautical expedition along the Adriatic coastline.

The main goal of this eight-member expedition which started on the 15th of October and will last to the 27th of this month is to discover the charms of the Croatian Adriatic, its coast and numerous Dalmatian islands. The project was initiated by the French association Expe2m which is aimed at deepening of the relationship between humans and nature by respecting and preserving the nature.

The course of the expedition has been followed on social networks as well as through reports of the members of the expedition team on French television and radio channels.
Eight members of the French nautical crew are true enthusiasts, nature and sports lovers, including an adventure film director, a journalist, a photographer, a scientist, a diver and a world paragliding champion. All of them are unique in their assessment that Croatia is just a perfect combination of authenticity and diversity of destinations and natural preservation.

This unique nautical expedition is 250 nautical miles long, and within two weeks' time the team will visit islands of Vis, Hvar, Brac, Kornati, Dugi Otok and many other islands of the Croatian Adriatic. The members of the team will discover sports and activities that can be practiced on these islands thus except sailing and walking through the nature there will be lots of windsurfing, kite surfing, paragliding, rowing and many other sports in the open.

Aquatika, the first freshwater aquarium in the region will open its doors to visitors in Karlovac in the Karlovac County on the 22nd of October.

The freshwater aquarium which has 25 pools with 5,000 fish from hundred species from Croatian rivers is an investment worth around 37 million Kunas and was financed with 98 percent from the operational program ''Regional competitiveness'' co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

On the eve of the opening Damir Jelic, the mayor of the city of Karlovac, visited the aquarium and said that it would be a unique institution in Croatia which would present the richness of flora and fauna of Croatian and European rivers and lakes, a project that had never been seen in the region before.

''This is not surprising considering the fact that no European country has such diverse and preserved rivers as Croatia. In addition, Karlovac as the city of four rivers – Korana, Kupa, Mreznica and Dobra – is the right place for the presentation of the water resources and richness we have'', said Jelic, adding that the city and the Karlovac County had lived for a long time for this project through its construction worth almost 37 million Kunas.

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A sixty-five year old German tourist was rescued from crashing waves in front of the Hotel Bellevue. She was saved by the ship 'Dance' owned by Dubrovnik Port Autorithy, which whisked her to the Old Port from where she was rushed to the Dubrovnik General Hospital. 

Hotel Rixos Libertas staff had noticed the Geramn swimmer struggling and immediately called help.

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Reader's photo (William Stock - UK) 

Autumn is here and the weather is far from nice – grey skies everywhere accompanied with the boring rain. If anything, it's the perfect time to dream about the summer that has passed. Those how have visited Croatia this summer have perfect memories to remember, just like the couple that has published video on Youtube channel DIANO MAYA, showing moments from their vacation filmed with GoPro camera. Beautiful shots of the clear blue sea and scenery of Dubrovnik, Split, Sibenik, Trogir, Krka, Lastovo, Vis, Island Scedro, Solta and Brac make this short video captivating. Take a look and dream about summer with us.

Boat to visit beautiful island of Lokrum, located just 600 meters from the Old City, will keep on transfering visitors until first of November for sure and if weather stays nice, it will keep on going for a week more – Marko Tevsic, director of the Lokrum island nature reserve confirmed for Dubrovacki vjesnik.

It's planned that one day of the weekend will be 'Open Day', so all the visitors could enjoy the beauty of Lokrum for free. You can visit this little heaven every day from 10 am to 5 pm and the boat leaves every full hour.

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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