November proved to be a bumper month for Dubrovnik tourism. A combination of the milder weather, more flight connections and increasing festive events has attracted more tourists to Dubrovnik in off-season.

A grand total of 26,511 tourist arrivals were recorded in November in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County which is an impressive 33 percent increase when compared to the same month last year. And in November the county achieved 72,592 overnight stays, an increase of 34 percent compared to November 2015.

From the beginning of 2016 to the end of November the county has seem 643,683 tourists arriving, which again is an increase this time by ten percent.

The most numerous tourists in the Dubrovnik – Neretva County have been from the United Kingdom, followed by tourists from Germany, Poland, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, the United States and Italy.

With the support of the US government and the Armed Forces of the United States the remaining eleven OH-58D Kiowa Warrior military helicopters were delivered to the Croatian Air Force base in Zemunik on the 3rd of December as part of the project of equipping the Croatian Armed Forces with reconnaissance and combat helicopters.

In a press release the Croatian Ministry of Defence said that five helicopters had been delivered by the end of this July thus this delivery completed the shipment of a total of sixteen Kiowa Warrior helicopters with which a squadron of helicopters in Zemunik would be equipped.

Apart from the helicopters all spare parts and equipment arrived again aboard the US C-5 Galaxy, one of the biggest military transport aircraft in the world.

The Kiowa Warrior helicopters were manufactured in the period from 2010 to 2012 and were introduced into operational use between 2012 and 2015. According to the Ministry of Defence, the helicopters come with a standard set of weapons, optical-electronic sensors and radio communication and navigation equipment.

The training of Croatian pilots on the Kiowa Warrior helicopters has not yet begun. It is most likely that they will be trained by American instructors.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister thanked Andrej Plenkovic, his Croatian counterpart for the assistance Croatia provided in fighting wildfires in Israel two weeks ago.

In a message he sent to Plenkovic Netanyahu emphasized Croatia's readiness to response immediately to his request for help which only testified the quality of Plenkovic's leadership and strong friendly relations between these two countries.

''Your assistance was valuable in fighting the wildfires and preventing any further damage being caused'', said Netanyahu in the message, adding that he would like to express his sincere gratitude to the Croatian team who fought against the forest fires shoulder to shoulder with Israeli fire-fighters.

Just to remind you, last month the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu contacted the Greek Prime Minister and the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic asking for an air assistance in fighting forest fires that broke out in northern and central Israel.

Both countries responded immediately. At the proposal of the Croatian Minister of Defence and with the consent of the Croatian president two Canadair CL-415 planes were sent to help fighting wildfires in Israel.

The Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic once again thanked the Croatian team for its courage and unselfish dedication in helping the Israeli people.

- Welcome to Croatia, an open digital library- the first country in the world that is completely free reading zone – it's written on the page Croatia Reads on Facebook. 

Croatia Reads is a project by the Free Reading Zones initiative, which supports free access to books and knowledge around the world.
These holidays in Croatia top 100,000 books from all over the world are available for free reading anywhere within its borders, without membership cards or special codes, not only for Croatian citizens, but also for visitors that come to Croatia. Handful of books from all over the world in various languages is available during the holidays.

All you need to do is download the free app Croatia Reads (Hrvatska čita) for Android or iOS smartphones and tablets.

Miss World Croatia Angelica Zacchinga already made a great success on the Miss World competition! She's been picked as one of the finalists of the talent competition and if she wins, she will be automatically placed in top 20. 

Her talent is singing and she blew everybody away with her performance of the song 'Natural Women' by Aretha Franklin. Since 139 Miss World contestants entered the talent competition, to be in the top 10 is truly a success. Other countries that made it are: Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Mongolia, Chile, Malta, Philippines, Ukraine and Canada.

Miss Croatia had a photo shoot in Dubrovnik recently, where she wore a stunning dress by Dzemila Dilberovic. She became Miss Croatia in June this year and now hopes to win the main title in the US this month.

If you want to see a part of Angelica's performance, check out the video – she's at 2:13!

Saint Nicholas is one of the favorite saints – he protects mariners, poor, bakers, fishermans, pharmacists, women... But he especially loves children and children love him!

In Croatia, children put a boot beneath the window on the night of December 5th. They clean it and prepare it for the arrival of Saint Nicholas. The story goes like this: if you've been good throughout the year you can expect your boot to be full of candy and if you've been bad you'll find thick piece of wood that is often connected with punishing the naughty children.

Saint Nicholas brings candy and he has a helper for the naughty ones – Krampus, that looks like devil and is often used to scare children when they are not behaving good.

On the morning of December 6th, children run to their windows to check what is placed in their boots. Most of them get both – candies and thick piece of wood, meaning that they have been good and bad throughout the year.

The biggest Christmas tree in Dubrovnik got covered with snow yesterday, just after the festive stands. It brought that special winter feeling and great joy to the children who immediately run to the tree to see the ''snow'' falling. Snow is maybe fake, but the winter magic is real.

Today, the 6th of December, marks one of the darkest pages in Dubrovnik’s long history. On this day 25 years ago the Serbian and Montenegrin forces launched an artillery attack on Dubrovnik, killing six people and wounding sixty.

It was the heaviest bombardment on the city during the Homeland War and some 650 shells fell onto the historic Old City of Dubrovnik damaging or destroying over half the buildings in this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rockets and mortar shells crashed into the city as the bombardment lasted for 12 hours. The Imperial Fortress on the top of the Srd Mountain was attacked relentlessly; however the aggressors were defeated by Dubrovnik’s brave defenders.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of this horrific act, an act that will always be remembered.