Tonight, the 2nd of December, at 7.30pm in the Dubrovnik Cathedral a rather special concert will be held. To mark the 15th anniversary of the musical workshop “Sorgo.” This anniversary will see a special concert organised in the atmospheric Dubrovnik Cathedral to which entry will be free of charge.

The musical workshop Sorgo was created with the intention of reviving forgotten music from the archives of Dubrovnik and to explore new ways to perform these contemporary pieces. Over the years the workshops have become a meeting place for the old and the new as well as a space for dialogue between different musical styles.

I've been fortunate enough to have to travel to Istria on business last week. This northernmost coastal region of Croatia is lovely to behold any time of the year, but I found it completely empty of all the tourists. Yes, it seems “Croatian Tuscany” as some like to call Istria, is struggling with off-season tourism, much like us down south.

Most of the historical places on the coast: Pula, Rovinj, Porec, Umag, were all pretty much desolate. Many of the local hospitality businesses were closed. Stone cobbled streets in historical districts were quiet and felt as if they are hiding some horrible secrets. They would make few people traversing them pick up their pace wishing to escape this realm of silence as quickly as possible. The entire thing felt very familiar.

Dubrovnik Region and Istria share many similarities. Both are highly esteemed tourism destinations and both boast wonderful natural resources, picturesque countryside, well preserved historical cities, and great food and wine. However, one major difference is the location. Istria is very close to Italy, Slovenia, Austria, and even Germany, so most of Istrian guests travel there by car. This leaves them free to decide to travel spontaneously and they can do so any time of the year. Meanwhile, our most frequently visiting guests – the British, Americans, Scandinavians, Western Europeans...all fly to Dubrovnik. When major airlines stop their direct flights to Dubrovnik, it pretty much disables our guests from coming over without going through the hassle of many connecting flights. We do get cruise ships, unlike Istria, and while this is not as good as having guests that live 2-4hrs drive away from you, it does make our city a bit more active during off season periods. Still, it seems we are equally inefficient in getting guests to visit during winter.

One thing that struck me while visiting this time is that neither the people of Istria nor Dubrovnik travel much among our two regions, which is a real shame. Istria is a perfect place for someone from Dubrovnik to visit. There is plenty to see and do and much of it is relatable to what we have at home, but different enough to be interesting to explore. Historical cities are wonderful, scattered villages absolutely charming and food and wine is to die for. The people of Istria could love coming to Dubrovnik for practically all the same reasons. Also, travelling like this would give us the perfect opportunity to better exchange experiences and ideas about tourism, hospitality, managing historical sites, and traditional agriculture– all crucial things for both regions.

We Croatians are competitive people and we often mistrust each other. There is a silly trend of rising animosities between the country's north and south and it has to be stopped. Did I say „silly“? I meant „stupid“. It's a very stupid trend and so are the people who support it. Even though we are a small country in size, we have quite a few different regions and it seems to me we simply don’t know enough about each other. We desperately need to explore our country more, so we can appreciate it more. The people of Istria and Dubrovnik would benefit greatly from travelling among these two regions. We would get to know each other a bit better and could enjoy in the best of what these two beautiful parts of Europe have to offer – something that we usually reserve for our international guests. Who knows, we might learn a thing or two in the process.

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Bozidar Jukic, AKA The Restless Native, is a Dubrovnik local with too many interests to name them all, with writing being at the very top of the list. He is a lover of good food, music and film, and a firm believer in the healing power of laughter. His professional orientation is towards tourism and travel so it comes as no surprise he spends most of his time alongside Mrs. Jukic running their own local tour company. Their goal is helping travellers from all over the world get a more intimate experience of Dubrovnik and what it has to offer. To find out more about their work, visit their website or Facebook page.
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The Portuguese airline company TAP Portugal (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses) has been considering to renew its services from Lisbon to Zagreb in 2017.

As part of its growth initiative the airline carrier is finalizing plans for the launch of eleven new routes next year. Seven of them will be in Europe thus Zagreb is highly likely to be included in the TAP’s airline network again.

Previously TAP operated flights to Zagreb via Bologna during the winter months but earlier this March the Portuguese carrier cancelled its operations to Zagreb. As a result, Zagreb had no longer nonstop flights to Lisbon.

However, in response to the situation, Croatia Airlines introduced seasonal flights between Zagreb and Lisbon three times a week during the summer months of 2016, which were code shared by TAP.

In 2010, TAP also operated seasonal summer flights between Lisbon and Dubrovnik, however, the service was not renewed.

Nicole Isaacs, American trendsetter, is enjoying Dubrovnik. That is clear from the photos that she posted on her Instagram account, where she has almost 150 thousand followers. For now she has published seven photos, promoting beauty of our City and her beauty as well. 

Nicole is travel and food blogger, founder of multimedia creative agency HungryApe, former member of the girl band Soccx and has also former producer of the show Fashion Police. She was all over the press when it was asumed that she's in the relationship with Terrence J, American actor and TV personality.

She has celebrated her birthday in Culture Club Revelin last year and it seems that she fell in love with the City.

It is well known fact that Croatia is full of beautiful scenes of nature that have amazed people all around the world. Croatia’s waterfall Krcic obviously impressed Allison Wallace so much that she published her article ‘’Waterfall Defies Gravity’’ on the website Yahoo Lifestyle.

“Krcic is located deep in the hinterland, about an hour drive from the National Park Krka, which is known for a series of seven waterfalls. This particular waterfall doesn’t flow year-round as it dries up in the summer. Only in the winter you can see the 22-metre waterfall in all its glory,” Wallace writes on Yahoo Lifestyle.

Due to the strong northern wind ‘’bura’’ the waterfall seems to run upstream.

The northerly winds that have been battering Dubrovnik for the past week hit new highs last night.

Bitterly cold gale force winds swept down over the mountains and wiped up the Adriatic Sea.

This boat in the Port of Dubrovnik fell victim to the high seas and slowly sunk. The owner was greeted this morning with a half submerged boat.

Some people just lose their heads (and their trousers) in excitement when they arrive in Dubrovnik. This revealing photo appeared on social media yesterday of a tourist getting carried away with the view, and offering a rather different view of his own. And as the cold north wind is blowing we can only presume that the view he offered wasn’t very generous!

This naked photography has taken off, no pun intended, over the past few years and more and more people are stripping down to their birthday suits for a holiday album snap. Several photos of naked tourists from the top of the Srd Mounatin overlooking Dubrovnik have been posted on social media this year.

This latest “skin feast” was taken from the Lovrijenac Fortress, which was a location for the popular Game of Thrones series.

A photo posted by Matthew Donnet (@mattyd282) on Nov 30, 2016 at 11:52am PST

After the Davis Cup final Croatia has jumped in the world tennis rankings to third in the world. Croatia were defeated by Argentina in the 2016 Davis Cup Finals in Zagreb last week 3 – 2 but with the points they earned for playing in the finals they have climbed from fifth to third in the ITF Davis Cup rankings.

On the top of the list after winning their first Davis Cup is Argentina and in second place is Great Britain. In fact Argentina leapfrogged Great Britain into first place after their dramatic win last weekend.

Croatia’s next opponents in the 2017 Davis Cup are Spain and this tough match will take place in February next year.