It’s all about jazz tonight in Dubrovnik. Sara Brodarić and Zeljko Brodarić Japp take the audience on a Jazz Winter Wonderland tonight at 8.00pm in the Marin Drzic theatre. This duo from Split have been selling out concerts all summer and with their varied Christmas repertoire tonight should be a magical evening.

This father and daughter singer-song writing duo perform jazz classics from the 1940’s and 1950’s accompanied by acoustic guitars. They cover such jazz legends as Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Frank Sinatra and other legendary performers.

Tonight’s concert will feature the Christmas evergreen classics, “Santa Baby”, “Santa Claus is coming to town”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, as well as a sprinkling of jazz classics like “At Last” and “Unforgettable.”

Tickets are only 30 Kunas and can reserved via phone on (020) 321 088 

The largest Polish airline, LOT Airlines, has announced flights from Warsaw to Dubrovnik for their 2018 summer schedule. Starting on the 3rd of May the airline will operate three flights a week to Dubrovnik, with prices starting at around 300 Euros for a return ticket.

LOT already operates flights to Croatia, the airline currently flies to Zagreb and Split, and for 2018 will greatly expand its flights to the country with Pula, Zadar and Dubrovnik all destinations.

In total the Polish airline will operate 21 flights a week between Warsaw and Croatia in the summer season of 2018.

Two Croatian tennis aces spent their Christmas in Dubrovnik. Marin Čilić, the winner of the 2014 US Open and currently ranked sixth in the world, uploaded a selfie on his Instagram profile with Dubrovnik born Ana Konjuh.

The pair posed in front of the Orlando statue in the heart of the Old City of Dubrovnik and looked as if they were enjoying their Dubrovnik winter break. Čilić was in Dubrovnik with his fiancée Kristina Milković, who along with Konjuh was born in the city.

The Dubrovnik Moto Club “Libertas Riders”, along with their friends from Konavle and Župa, the biker’s clubs of Two Wheels and Nomads, and the Du Moto Forum as well as all the bikers from Dubrovnik, traditionally organized an event in the Old City of Dubrovnik today “Santa Bikers.”

At midday the bikers thundered onto the Stradun today and delighted the awaiting children as they handed out sweets and festive candies.

Besides the fun, the bikers also had a humanitarian goal as they were collecting funds for the purchase of a new defibrillator for the Children’s Department of the Dubrovnik General Hospital. In fact, they were joining in the action from the Facebook Group “Mums from the Dubrovnik region” to help raise funds for this much needed defibrillator.

The defibrillator costs around 77,000 Kunas and the bikers are certain that thanks to donations and the big hearts of Dubrovnik citizens they will raise enough money to purchase the it.

Well done Dubrovnik Bikers!

The catastrophic pollution that had plagued the Old City of Dubrovnik harbour has almost been completely cleaned. Heavy southerly winds had brought tonnes of waste, including plastic bottles, footballs and large logs, floating into the old harbour.

The public cleaning company, city services and volunteers all assisted in the massive clean-up operation with more than 100 cubic metres of waste collected in a just a few days.

At the time the Croatian MEP, Dubravka Suica, appealed to the European Commission “"As the existing regulations are insufficient to regulate marine waste, and I am calling on the Commission to urgently take measures to save the Dubrovnik coast and the rest of the Adriatic.” It appeared that the vast majority of the waste had been brought on gale force winds from Albania. And Suica continued that “Although Albania is a signatory to the Barcelona Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Area of the Mediterranean, the amount of Albanian waste has not diminished and is increasingly damaging the Croatian coast, inhabitants and marine flora and fauna.”

Thanks to the monumental effort of the cleaning services and volunteers, as well as a favourable northerly wind, the ancient harbour is almost back to its pristine best. At least until more southerly winds bring more waste and pollution.

The scene in the Dubrovnik harbour on the 17th of December 

And on the 25th of December 

After a 12-year break the Croatian national airline, Croatia Airlines, has announced the reintroduction of flights between Zagreb and Mostar, in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This is great news for Mostar Airport which has suffered in 2017 with attracting new airlines and passengers. Only just over 42,000 passengers have been handled by Mostar Airport so far this year, which is a drop of over 20 percent compared to last year. The government of Bosnia and Herzegovina will help fund the new operations and have earmarked half a million Euros in subsidies. "The subsidies for the launch of this route will exclusively cover the costs incurred by the airline operator, in order to make the service profitable on a long-term basis," commented the government in a statement.

It is expected that the new route will start in early June and run twice a week, although no firm timetable has been announced as yet.

Emma, Olivia and Ava are the most popular girl’s names, and Liam, Noah and Logan are the most popular male names given to boys throughout the world in 2017.

However, at the beginning of 2017, the most popular name for girls in the world was Olivia, but at the end of the same year, Olivia was the 'vice champion' and Emma took the top spot. At the beginning of this year, the most popular name for boys was Asher, and in late 2017 the most popular name was Liam.

Here are the most popular names for girls and boys in 2017:

1. Emma
2. Olivia
3. Ava
4. Sofia
5. Isabela
6. Mia
7. Amelia
8. Sharlota
9. Harper
10. Aria

The most popular names for boys during 2017 was:

1. Liam
2. Noa
3. Logan
4. Lukas
5. Mason
6. Ethan
7. Oliver
8. Elias
9. Adam
10. James

The weather was perfect, the Old City pristine and the happy, smiling faces made Christmas in Dubrovnik a special day.

Families strolled along the Stradun, children played, the café bars were full and, of course, the Dubrovnik Teddy Bear proved a hotspot for portraits.

Check out this Christmas Day in Dubrovnik gallery by Zeljko Tutnjevic