Two Germans have been caught and arrested trying to smuggle fourteen dogs into Croatia. The incident happened on Friday the 17th of November when at about 3.55 am at the Montenegro border two cars, a BMW with Montenegrin number plates and a German registered Dacia, tried to cross the border into Croatia. In the Dacia were two German ladies, the 30-year-old driver and a 26 year-old passenger, as well as four cages with five dogs, whilst the other car contained five cages with nine dogs.

The Germans claimed at the Montenegro border that the dogs belonged to them and rather surprisingly they were allowed to pass the border. Presumably the Montenegrin border control were simply passing the problem onto the Croatian customs, as two cars with fourteen dogs travelling together should have raised alarm bells.

Croatian police and customs had a harder line than their Montenegrin counterparts and on investigating the matter further realised that the dog passports for all the dogs were counterfeit. The Germans were arrested and are currently in Dubrovnik prison whilst the dogs have been returned to Montenegro.

With hundreds of supermarkets all over Croatia, and the wider region, we would have thought that the retail giant Studenac would have been a little more careful with their marketing.

Someone wrote the words, a graphic designer created the layout, a company printed it and another one installed it and nobody realised throughout this process that of the two English words on the sign one was spelt wrong. “Pleasent Journey” (that was tough to write as spellcheck kept changing it) should have read “Pleasant Journey.” Quite clearly the spellcheck at Studenac is on holiday.

This sign is located on Ombla River near Dubrovnik, passed by thousands of drivers every day, and wishes all passers-by a pleasent…sorry pleasant journey.

The German travel giant TUI, the largest leisure and travel company in the world, is cutting out the middle man and moving in on the accommodation market in Croatia with the construction of new hotels on an Adriatic island.

Sunce koncern d.d. Zagreb and TUI are planning a new investment on the Croatian island of Brač.

The Croatian company owned by Jako Andabak has purchased 320,000 square metres of land at Sutivan on Brač where, in cooperation with the German tour operator TUI is planning to build three new hotels.

This is the final phase of a joint venture of Sunce koncern and TUI, which became the 50 percent shareholder of the Punta Zlatarac Tučepi last week. The Tučepi Hotels sold their share in the company to the Germans for 31.5 million Euros, whilst, according to the agreement, Punta Zlatarac became a joint venture with 51 percent of ownership of TUI and 49 percent of Sunce koncern.

''The land is located on the island of Brač in the Sutivan municipality and represents an exceptional location for the development of new tourist facilities. It is an area of 320,000 square metres with a direct access to the coast and good infrastructure connectivity'', said Sunce koncern.

The news about new projects came shortly after Jako Andabak, the owner of Sunce koncern, announced the pulling down of the old complex of the Termia Hotel in Bizovačke Toplice by the end of this year. Andabak purchased it three years ago and now he is planning to build a completely new facility worth 10 million Euros.

It seems that every day something new pops up in Dubrovnik when it comes to Christmas decorations. After the Old City was decorated and a fun fair set up on the Sunset Beach in the Bay of Lapad, Gruz got some holiday spirit too.

In the Luj Soletic Park in Gruz, just like last year, there is a big snowman, mushrooms, shiny house, Christmas tree... Just enough to make the youngest happy!

A real winter wonderland attracted children and they all wanted to take photos with these shiny decorations. We'll see what the next couple of days will bring...

Festive spirit continues with fun fair opening tomorrow, at 3 pm on the Sunset Beach.

In comparison to other EU countries, home loans, or mortgages, in Croatia are relatively favourable.

According to data, home loans are most favourable for citizens of Slovakia. A long-term loan, with maturity over ten years, Slovaks can get at an interest rate of 1,67 percent, much cheaper than those living in one of the countries in the Eurozone.
As far as Croatia is concerned, loans in the country are relatively favourable with an interest rate of 3,51 percent. According to data from the Croatian National Bank (HNB), apart from Slovakia, favourable loan terms are offered only by banks in Slovenia and Estonia.

However, last year was not so good for Croatia when it comes to loan terms; the average interest rate for home loans was 4,77 percent, whilst six countries in Central and Eastern Europe had more favourable terms, which only indicates that competition among Croatian banks in the struggle for new clients is tougher this year.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, comparative data for new EU members show that it is most difficult to be an entrepreneur in Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia. Loans up to one million Euros for a period up to one year in these countries can be obtained at an interest rate of 3,91 percent in Croatia to 4,18 percent in Romania. At the same time, in the Czech Republic, such loans can be obtained at an interest rate of 2,27 percent, almost the same as in the Eurozone (2,19%).

In the past week in the area of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County there were 11 road traffic accidents, of which seven involved injures with two people seriously injured.

The Dubrovnik police department reports that they carried out a range of measures against drivers in which 454 drivers were fined due to offences. From 454 repressive measures 189 were for speeding, 44 due to improper parking, 55 because drivers weren’t wearing a seat belt, 25 due to illegal overtaking, 28 for drivers who failed to turn on their headlights and 13 for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The last thing you want to find in a port is a naval mine. But that is exactly what was found in the Ploce Port and at a depth of only 4.5 metres. The World War II mine was a German (luftminebomb) device that had been probably dropped via parachute into the region of the Port of Ploce.

The one tonne mine was carrying 700 kilograms of explosives when it was originally dropped by plane. For decades the mine had laid at a depth of only 4.5 metres and just 20 metres from the shore and 200 metres from the site of a new port terminal for bulk cargo.

Yesterday this World War II relict was removed by officers of the bomb squad with the assistance of the Port of Ploce. The bomb was firstly dismantled underwater and then lifted to the surface with air balloons before being transported to the shore.

This is the third such mine found in the Port of Ploce which begs the question is there a fourth mine hidden. The German mine layers used to drop two mines at a time, so is there a fourth mine in the port or did it explode many years ago.

A long-awaited American epic space saga film is on the horizon!

To the joy of all Star Wars fans around the world, the latest ‘’Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi’’ will hit the screens on the 15th of December 2017.

The latest episode of this globally popular blockbuster will also bring joy to all the fans in Croatia and especially to Dubrovnik which played a role of the casino city Canto Bight in ‘’The Last Jedi’’ film.

Canto Bight was a coastal city on the desert planet Cantonica. The city was a destination for wealthy individuals, and it was filled with casinos and racetracks. During the war between the Resistance and the First Order, Resistance members Finn and Rose Tico travelled to Canto Bight. The Canto Bight Police were the law enforcement of the city.

Canto Bight was created for ‘’Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi’’ and it was described by the director Rian Johnson as "a Star Wars Monte Carlo–type environment, a little James Bond–ish, a little To Catch a Thief’’.

The latest ‘’Star Wars: The Last Jedi- Behind the Scenes’’ video surely caught our eye. The video is very interesting and we spotted two images related to Dubrovnik – the image of the Old City and the image of the ‘’space horse’’ behind a railing obviously waiting for the next race.

All and all, we need to be patient a little longer until the Last Jedi swings his light saber on cinema screens across the world.