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
The Dubrovnik Tourist Board has released figures on the number of tourists in Dubrovnik for this Easter holiday period. There are currently 5,551 guests staying in the city, in hotels, private accommodation and other accommodation facilities, this figure is on a par with the results achieved in 2015.
The majority of tourists are from Spain, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, USA, Greece, Japan, the United Kingdom and South Korea.
The Easter Holidays are traditionally the beginning of the tourist season in Dubrovnik and the vast majority of the city’s hotels, restaurants, cafes, etc are now open. The first cruise ships arrived in Dubrovnik last weekend and the historic Old City is relatively busy.
The tourist season in Dubrovnik begun earlier and stronger than usual with the Mercedes Global Training Event which brought sales representative and managers of the famous German car brand to Dubrovnik from all over the world. So far the event, which ends on the 14th of April, has achieved an additional 55,222 tourist arrivals and 137,628 overnight stays.
Dancers, performances, Easter decorations, eggs and bags of warm sunshine – Easter Sunday in Dubrovnik was magical. After the Holy Mass that was held in the city’s cathedral the good weather brought many people out onto the streets of the Old City of Dubrovnik.
“It is such a terrific atmosphere, and the weather is unbelievable,” commented a tourist from the UK. According to data from the Dubrovnik Tourist Board around 6,000 tourists are currently staying in Dubrovnik and the sunshine and Easter atmosphere certainly impressed them.
A presentation of traditional Easter egg painting was held by members of the association “Dubrovnik Primorje Wedding,” and tourists were shown the details and work that go into making these mini masterpieces.
Palm weaving, another traditional Easter custom was also on show, and guests to the Easter celebrations were entertained by folk dancing and vocal choirs. There was also a flower sale with all proceeds going towards the Down syndrome society in Dubrovnik.
Easter, the beginning of the tourist season in Dubrovnik, in the city was one to remember, not least for the endless blue skies and glowing sunshine.
Photos by Zeljko Tutnjevic
The former military resort of Kupari, south of Dubrovnik, has been a blot on the landscape since it was destroyed in the Homeland War in the early nineties, but now a street artist has given it a new funky feel, at least temporarily. Using the trash and waste materials in the bombed out shells of the hotels, plus a few hundred litres of paint and rolls of tape, the Kupari resort is now a living exhibition of street art, or trash art.
Francisco de Pajaro, aka Art is Trash, is a Spanish street artists based in Barcelona. He is a globetrotting artist who has created this special art form in many countries. “Art is Trash has astounded not only passersby in the streets of London, Berlin, Nantes, France, Dubai, Barcelona, New York, Chicago and Miami, but also gallery owners and art curators who are hungry for straightforward, instinctive and honest artists who love taking things that society considers ugly and making them beautiful or fun,” states the artists website.
The Spanish artist spent 25 hours in Kupari and painted over 6,000 square metres. He has created “new guests” in the hotel, a total of 133 new drawings or new guests. However this will definitely be a temporary exhibition as the whole resort has recently been sold to a hotel chain and the demolishers and bulldozers are expected to move in soon.
Check out this amazing video of Francisco de Pajaro at work in Kupari.
The only major supermarket that will be closed on Easter Monday throughout Croatia is the German chain Lidl.
The biggest Croatian supermarket chain Konzum will be closed on Easter Sunday but the vast majority will be open on Easter Monday.
Depending on the store Konzum stores will be open from 7am to 1pm on Monday, however The Dubrovnik Times has learned that the Konzum in the SUB City shopping centre in Zupa will be open all day on Monday from 8am to 9pm.
Spar has announced that their stores will all be closed on Sunday but will be open on Monday from 8am to 2pm.
Tommy supermarket will, as the rest, be closed on Sunday but is believed to be operating a normal working service on Monday.
The Easter Holidays are upon us and the Old City of Dubrovnik is shining with decorations. An Easter bunny, a basket of Easter eggs and of course chicks have been installed at the end of the main street, the Stradun, and are proving a magnet for children, young and old.
Easter is traditionally the beginning of the tourist season in Dubrovnik and many more airplanes have been seen in the skies today. The city expects around 6,000 tourists to arrive over the Easter holiday period and the number of tourists sightseeing today show that this number might even be more.
Check out our gallery of photos of Dubrovnik’s Easter decorations by Niksa Duper.
Fancy a cheap weekend break to a European destination, well according to the popular UK newspaper; The Independent the place to go is Dubrovnik! The UK Post Office “City Costs Barometer,” which measures the most affordable cities in Europe for a city break has been recently released and Dubrovnik is on the list.
For the eighth year in a row the UK Post Office has studied 35 European cities and ranked them, their value for money, by using twelve key factors. Accommodation, sightseeing, travel, meals and drinks were all included in the survey. According to the survey the most affordable European city for a break is Warsaw in Poland.
Dubrovnik was ranked as the seventh most affordable holiday break in Europe with a two-night stay coming in at £137.
The full cost index from the UK Post Office for Dubrovnik based on a two-night stay was as follows.
Two-night stay for two adults in a three-star hotel: £41
Return bus/train transfer (from airport to city centre): £7.61
48-hour travel card: £6.52
Top tourist heritage attraction: Dubrovnik City Walls — £10.87
Three-course meal for two with a bottle of wine: £35.01
Coffee: £0.87
Beer: £1.63
Cola: £1.63
Wine: £3.26
Making a grand total of £137 for a two-night city break in Dubrovnik. Lisbon came in at sixth, Krakow in fifth, Riga in fourth, with the top three being Budapest, Vilnius and Warsaw.
We will all have an hour less in bed as from this Sunday the 27th of March the clocks go forward an hour. Spring – Forward, Fall – Back...for all those who can’t remember which way the clocks go in the seasons.
On Sunday the 27th of March, Easter Sunday, the clocks move forward one hour from 2 o’clock in the morning, move them forward to 3 o’clock. Don’t be surprised when you wake up in the morning and see your mobiles and smart phones showing an extra hour, you didn’t oversleep, they automatically updated their clocks.
Dubrovnik in 4K is the name of the latest video about Dubrovnik to appear on YouTube. The video was produced by the website Cities in 4K, which presents many of the world’s cities in the highest video standard 4K resolution.
The crew from Cities 4K recently visited Dubrovnik after the filming of the eighth episode of Star Wars was completed and their video provides a unique insight into the city before the summer season. “Dubrovnik is always worth a trip. That´s what the crew of Cities in 4K thought, too,” commented the website. We agree with them.
The new video features, along with 4K resolution, many time-lapse photography which when all combined produces amazing effects. “The idea behind this is to represent as many cities as possible in the newest 4K resolution. That’s not all. The footages will also be filmed in the popular time-lapse photography technique combined with standard 4K scenes,” writes the website Cities 4K.
Apart from Dubrovnik the crew has also filmed Istanbul, Salzburg, Hvar and Budapest, and they already have almost 10,000 subscribers to the Youtube channel.
Check out this stunning new video.