Tuesday, 18 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

If you are planning to drive up to Zagreb from Dubrovnik don’t forget you’ll need winter tyres or you could be facing a fine of 700 Kuna. According to a decision made by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure from today until the 15th of April 2018 winter equipment is mandatory regardless of weather conditions and road conditions for all vehicles on the so called “winter road sections” in Croatia.

These winter sections don’t include any inside the Dubrovnik – Neretva County, however drivers on the A1 motorway will need to have winter tyres if they plan on travelling the capital.

Under the winter section are all Croatian motorways except the Dalmatian section A1 from Maslenica to Vrgorac and the Istrian highway. Winter equipment is described as winter tyres on all wheels or summer tyres with the lowest depth of 4 mm tread profile plus snow chains. The penalty for not having the correct winter equipment is 700 Kuna.

Croatia is a country where rich people will spend their money and fall in love with the country as soon as they watch this interesting video, at least according to the words of Alux.

“Croatia has served as the set design of many famous films and TV shows including Game of Thrones. When you venture into this world of amazing landscapes and incredible culture expect to take a tonne of pictures, particularly in the city of Dubrovnik a medieval town located on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, which is one of the most sought after destinations in the world,” opens the text about Dubrovnik in a new promo video just released.

The British agency and website for Luxury and Fine Living Enthusiasts intended exclusively for millionaires and billionaires, recommends them the best ways where and how to spend their money. 

In Alux’s latest 17-minute video ‘’15 Things You Didn’t Know About Croatia’’ the agency reports about Croatia’s industry and the best spots for investment, as well as about natural beauty, cultural heritage, inventors and the fact that Croatia is one of the safest world countries for tourists to visit.

The video is very interesting however, Alux made a mistake related to Dubrovnik. While talking about ‘’The Pearl of the Adriatic’’ i.e. Dubrovnik, the video showed photos of the Old Bridge in Mostar located in the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though Dubrovnik is located on the Adriatic Sea in the Croatian region of Dalmatia, video featured Mostar in the background. Only few minutes later photos of Dubrovnik appeared on the screen. 

All and all, we thank Alux for this great promotion of Croatia; however, we advise them to pay more attention in the future to geography of Croatia and the neighbouring countries in the region. 

 

Croatia is a country where rich people will spend their money and fall in love with the country as soon as they watch this interesting video, at least according to the words of Alux.

The British agency and website for Luxury and Fine Living Enthusiasts intended exclusively for millionaires and billionaires, recommends them the best ways where and how to spend their money.

In Alux’s latest 17-minute video ‘’15 Things You Didn’t Know About Croatia’’ the agency reports about Croatia’s industry and the best spots for investment, as well as about natural beauty, cultural heritage, inventors and the fact that Croatia is one of the safest world countries for tourists to visit.

The video is very interesting however, Alux made a mistake related to Dubrovnik. While talking about ‘’The Pearl of the Adriatic’’ i.e. Dubrovnik, the video showed photos of the Old Bridge in Mostar located in the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though Dubrovnik is located on the Adriatic Sea in the Croatian region of Dalmatia, video featured Mostar in the background. Only few minutes later photos of Dubrovnik appeared on the screen.

All and all, we thank Alux for this great promotion of Croatia; however, we advise them to pay more attention in the future to geography of Croatia and the neighbouring countries in the region. 

Among the 600 best cafe bars in the world, according to the Phaidon guide ''Where to Drink Coffee'', Eliscaffe from Zagreb has also found its place in this prestigious group.

''Where to Drink Coffee'' is a famous guide made by professionals. Around 150 best baristas and coffee experts selected 600 places across the globe where the best coffee is served.

Since the opening in 2005, Eliscaffe and its owner Nik Orosi have received a number of awards. It is the first specialized coffee bar in Croatia and was the first smoke-free coffee bar opened in the region.

where to drink coffee

Reputable newspapers such as the New York Times and the Financial Times wrote about Eliscaffe and its owner, however, including the cafe bar on the list of the best coffee spots in the world is perhaps the greatest recognition for their work.
It is interesting to note that Eliscaffe made it to the prestigious list thanks to the rating of Tim Wendelboe, a top-class and most award-winning barista from Norway.

''For a long time Eliscaffe was the only place in Zagreb where you could have a good cup of coffee, however, after winning numerous awards, Nik has never stopped improving the quality'', wrote Wendelboe in his review.

''I bought that book last week and when I went through its pages, I saw that Eliscaffe is on the list'', commented Nik, who was thrilled with the fact that his coffee is among the best in the world thanks to Tim Wendelboe. ''He does not praise very often. On the contrary, sometimes he is very harsh and speaks his mind’’.

Orosi also added that there are 1,300 cafe bars in Zagreb; however, Eliscaffe was the only one selected. ‘’Austria is not even on this list, and only six cafe bars from Italy were selected by the Phaidon Guide. Look at the size of Italy, and look at the size of Croatia!'', commented Nik Orosi with delight.

All electric car fans now have a new place to charge up their vehicles in Dubrovnik.

In July 2016 the Croatian Electrical Company (HEP) and the City of Dubrovnik signed an agreement to construct two more electric chargers in the city. The first was installed in front of the main swimming pool in Gruž and now this week the second has been installed in front of the “Solidarnosti” building in Lapad.

The total investment was 140,000 Kunas and allows two vehicles to be charged at the same time on a four-hour charge depending on the battery. At the moment the charging will be free of charge until the test period has been completed. So far HEP has installed 21 charging stations all over Croatia.

elen dubrovnik

In recent years, many international film production companies have recognized Croatia as a country teeming with great filming locations.

Blockbusters such as Star Wars, Robin Hood, Mamma Mia 2, the globally popular TV series Game of Thrones, Knightfall, Borgia, McMafia and many more all found a picture perfect scenery in Croatia.

Last year, the BBC film crew filmed the new series ''McMafia'' in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, a TV drama about the Russian mafia in London starring James Norton.

At the recently held ''Industry'' program as a part of the Zagreb Film Festival, the producer of the TV series ''McMafia'' James Watkins commented, ''Apart from a great and diligent film crew, the best thing in Croatia is a variety of locations, landscapes and arhitecture. You should make the most of it, and with good film studios, your country would be invincible''.

Watkins went on explaining, ''When we first came to Croatia, we were taken to a tour of the best restaurants and almost immediately were thrilled with this beautiful country, especially when we found what we looked for and saw the variety of locations hidden here''.

The eight-part BBC drama ''McMafia'' is based on the bestseller of the Guardian's reputable journalist Misha Glenny about organized crime. It was filmed more than nine months in ten world countries such as Great Britain, Turkey, Russia, India and Croatia. While in Croatia, the filming took place on various locations in Zagreb, as well as in Split, Rovinj and on the island of Pag.

''McMafia'' is to be broadcast this winter and will surely be another great tourist promotion of Croatia.

The low-cost airline Flydubai could soon be operating flights to Dubrovnik. According to a report on the specialised website EX-YU Aviation the airline is considering launching flights to both Dubrovnik and Ljubljana.

“In the next one month we will be announcing our set of new summer destinations and a lot of European routes are coming, especially in the South. We can't talk about them right now but some of them that have been mentioned, like Dubrovnik and Ljubljana, may be in our network,” commented the Vice President for Commercial Operations, Jeyhun Efendi to EX-YU Aviation. Adding that discussions between the airline and Dubrovnik Airport have already been held.

An interesting Chinese TV show entirely dedicated to Croatia will be broadcast in China in mid-December.

Last month the Chinese TV crew of the TV show titled Tian Tian Xiang Shang (‘’Learn well and progress more every day’’) visited Dubrovnik and Zagreb, where they filmed funny stories about Croatia, its people, culture, food, music etc.

While filming in Croatia, the Chinese were accompanied by the legendary Croatian football coach Miroslav Ćiro Blažević, the singer Jelena Rozga, the Croatian cellist Ana Rucner and the famous pianist Maksim Mrvica, who has already had a star status in China.

A few days ago, the second round of filming about Croatia titled ‘’Croatian Rhapsody’’ was recorded in the city of Changsha. It is interesting to note that ‘’Croatian Rhapsody’’ is one of Chinese fans’ favourite compositions of Maksim Mrvica.

The filming was held in the studios of the Chinese TV station Hunan TV. Apart from Mrvica, the TV show also featured the Croatian Ambassador to China Nebojša Koharović, the owner of the restaurant ‘’Stari Puntijar’’ Zlatko Puntijar with his daughter Matea, the Xiaoting Chen-Li family, owners of the well known Chinese restaurant ‘’Asia’’ in Croatia, as well as the Croatian singer Lana Jurčević.

The 90-minute long TV show about Croatia will be broadcast on the 15th of December and it is expected to attract the audience of one billion viewers, as much as the TV station Hunan generally covers in China. However, this number could be even larger because many people will watch the TV show online via internet links and social media.

This TV show will surely be a great tourist promotion of Croatia considering the fact that the new Chinese middle class, which can be hardly compared to any other in the world, spent $261 billion while travelling across the globe last year.

In its latest issue, The Economist has looked into the matter of naming airports in the Balkan region.

The British weekly newspaper considers that airports in the countries in the region were named in a way to annoy each other, thus, as a first example, they singled out Zagreb Airport describing it as a ‘’new futuristic edifice’’.

‘’It was renamed after Franjo Tudjman, the father of the Croatian independence movement. In the bloody war, Tudjman fought against Croatian Serbs who were supported by Serbia and who established a short-lived and separated Serbian republic on a third of Croatian territory. In 1995, most of these Croatian Serbs were exiled’’, wrote The Economist.

‘’Among victims of the ethnic cleansing were also cousins of the world’s most famous Serb and inventor Nikola Tesla. He was born in a Serbian family in 1856 on the territory of today’s Croatia; however, he immigrated to America. Both Serbs and Croats consider him as one of their own. In 2006, the airport in Belgrade was named after Nikola Tesla, which some of Croats found disturbing’’, continued The Economist.

The British newspaper stated a few more examples such as Priština Airport in Kosovo, which was named after Adem Jašari, the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army who was killed by Serbian forces. ‘’For Albanians he is a hero, and for Serbs he is a devil’’, wrote The Economist. Of course, there are no flights operating between the airports Nikola Tesla and Adem Jašari.

Interestingly, this whole story with naming airports started with Greeks in 1992 when they named the airport in Thessaloniki after Macedonia in order to spite the newly established independent Republic of Macedonia. Later in 2007, Macedonians did the similar thing; they named their airport in Skopje Alexander the Great. However, the new Macedonian government wants better relations with Greece thus, it is possible that the Macedonians will change the name of the airport in Skopje after all.

In addition, The Economist commented that there are still exceptions to this practice stating a failed attempt of Bosnians to name the airport in Sarajevo after the former Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović. The airport in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica is simply called Podgorica, but it still bears the TGD code, meaning Titograd, as was the name of the Montenegrin capital while Montenegro was a part of the former Yugoslavia.

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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