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
We are not so keen on running but if we have to, at least we would like to do at on some special place, like Dubrovnik.
Website halfmarathons.net has published a an article 13 Bucket List Half Marathons in Extraordinary Places and Dubrovnik made it to the list. It has been placed fourth.
- One of the most stunningly beautiful cities anywhere in the Mediterranean awaits at this Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea, where you’ll run portions of the race on the walls through the city, as well as along the Stradun, its most famous and oldest street – website writes.
There are many reasons why runners should come to Dubrovnik. Organizer - Du Motion and its races are renowned for their interesting panoramic tracks that explore the old city and the Dubrovnik coastline with a start and finish line on the historic Stradun. However it is also well-known for its great atmosphere and runners from all over the world.
Dubrovnik half marathon will be held on April 29th and you can registrate here.
Croatia and Ireland are about to get much closer in 2018 as new flights connecting the two countries have been announced by both Croatia Airlines and Aer Lingus. The Croatian national airline, Croatia Airlines, stated a few days ago that they were looking into expanding their European operations and destinations in 2018 and one of the first moves seems to be flights between Zagreb and Dublin.
There are several potential reasons for this new line, firstly the growth in the number of Irish tourists and secondly the increasingly large number of Croatians living in the Emerald Isle. In fact, Ireland and Sweden and the two fastest growing Croatian diaspora communities in Europe, mainly thanks to a relaxed visa regime.
And the biggest Irish airline, Aer Lingus, have also announced a step-up in operations to Croatia in 2018. The airlines flies to three cities in Croatia, Dubrovnik, Split and Pula, and for this summer season will add an extra weekly flight meaning that Dublin and Dubrovnik will have daily connections through the summer months.
"We are delighted to announce the further strengthening of our network to Croatia with these additional flights. The extra frequencies to Dubrovnik, Split and Pula will allow us to continue offering the choice, service and value that delivered our Skytrax four-star accreditation and we look forward to welcoming guests on board these services to Croatia in 2018", commented Aer Lingus to the specialised website Ex-Yu Aviation.
The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra and the Dubrovnik Chamber Choir will hold a concert on the occasion of the day of St. Blaise and the Day of the City of Dubrovnik on Thursday, 1 February in the cathedral.
The concert will be conducted by Frano Krasovac, and the soloists will be the tenor Tomislav Tukša and mezzosoprano Flaka Goranci. The start of the concert is at 20:00 and entrance is free of charge.
The Kosovarian Opera singer Flaka Goranci set out studying piano, before changing her major to singing. She obtained her bachelor’s degree 2004-2008 at the Music Academy of Tirana in Albania. At the tender age of 22 she debuted with the role of Rosina in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia”, at the Albanian State Opera in Tirana, Albania.
The concert is organized in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum from Zagreb and the Croatian-Austrian Society of Dubrovnik. The evening will feature Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn and Sorkočević.
According to a survey from the European Health Consumer Index (EHCI), the health care system in Croatia has placed as the 26th among 35 European countries.
The European Health Consumer Index , which measures the quality and accessibility of health care in 35 countries through 45 indicators, showed that the Croatian health care system dropped by seven places on the list in comparison to 2016.
The survey also stated that, despite the more modest health care per capita, Croatia’s health care applies highly advanced and expensive procedures such as kidney transplantation. Having 45 transplantations per million inhabitants, Croatia is at the very top among all European countries.
However, there was a significant decline recorded last year, primarily in the accessibility of health care services and treatment results. The report mentioned long waiting lists and high mortality rate due to cancer and cardiovascular diseases in 2017 as well as bad results achieved in the prevention of high blood pressure, smoking and alcoholism.
The best-rated European countries by the health care system are the Netherlands and Switzerland, followed by Denmark, Norway and Luxembourg.
As far as Croatia is concerned, it is in a lower part of the list among 35 European countries, tailing Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro, which ranked better than Croatia.
The countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania and Hungary hit the bottom of the European Health Consumer Index list with the worst health care system in Europe.
The British rock singer and songwriter Sir Rod Stewart is coming to Croatia this February when he will hold a concert at the Arena Centre in Zagreb.
Before the concert on the 2nd of February 2018, the British singer also known as ‘’Rod the Mod’’ revealed that he is looking forward to his visit to Croatia which will be not only a business one but a private visit as well.
The actual time of arrival as well as the hotel, where Stewart will be staying during his visit to the Croatian capital will remain secret to the very end. However, the concert organizers have revealed some trivia about the concert of the famous singer.
Unlike many celebrities who more often than not exaggerate in their demands before performing, Sir Rod Stewart is quite modest in his demands related to his first performance in Croatia. According to the words of the concert organizers, Stewart’s biggest demand is 300 kilograms of ice, a supply of special mineral water at room temperature and a comfortable sofa in the backstage.
Deutsche Welle published a detailed article yesterday about Germans turning to Croatia when it comes to organ donations.
As it turns out, the number of people willing to donate organs in Germany has never been lower and that's why the patients are getting more and more dependent on a European cross-border organ excange program.
Deutsche Welle explains that in Croatia there is a opposite trend – more and more Croatians are willing to donate organs. They reached to Nikola Zgrablic, the president of the Croatian Donor Network (HDM), says that German patients are reaping the benefits of changing habits in Croatia.
"In 2017, we had 132 donors whose organs were actually removed," he said for the Deutsche Welle. "We have more than 30 organ donations per 1 million inhabitants. This makes Croatia one of the most successful of the eight countries in the Eurotransplant Foundation, which allocates donated organs."
It seems that the reason behind it might be a difference in organ donor program. In Croatia, every citizen can theoretically become an organ donor if they have not explicitly stated their refusal to do so before they die. On the other hand in Germany citizens (16 or older) must register if they are willing to donate their organs.
For more details, read the original article here.
Even though they do it every day, traffic police of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County will carry out an action to enchance veichle speed control – it is stated from Dubrovnik-Neretva Police Administration in order to prevent speeding.
Otherwise, in the past week in the area covered by this Police Administration, there were 12 road accidents, and in four there were injured people. One person was harder, and seven are more easily injured.
By carrying out traffic control measures, police officers have taken 597 repressive measures against the perpetrators of traffic offenses, out of which 220 measures taken due to speeding, 28 due to improper overtaking, 122 offenses due to non-use of the seat belt and 23 measures taken against drivers driving the vehicle under the influence of alcohol.
The official opening of the promotional season of Croatia as a tourist destination in the Russian Federation started in Moscow on the 23rd of January with the traditional ‘’Sell Croatia’’ workshop.
‘’Sell Croatia’’ gathered 19 Croatian tourist companies and more than 80 Russian partners and companies that expressed their interest in the workshop, mainly tour operators and agencies, including key Russian tour operators for Croatian market such as Paks, TUI, VIP Servis, Russian Express and PAC Group.
The director of the Croatian National Tourist Board branch office in Russia Rajko Ružička, the Croatian Ambassador to the Russian Federation Tonči Staničić, and the Croatian consul at the Croatian Embassy in the Russian Federation Siniša Ivanec presented Croatia’s tourist offer and investment potentials to Russian media representatives and representatives of Croatian and Russian tourist companies.
The director of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) in Moscow Jakov Despot presented services and activities of the HGK branch office as well as the support the HGK provides to Croatian companies that operate or would like to operate in the Russian Federation.
In addition, the director of the HTZ branch office in Russia Rajko Ružička presented the results of Croatian tourism in 2017, activity plans for 2018, potentials and possibilities of Croatia as a tourist destination for Russian tourists and the Russian tourist industry as well as the most important Croatian tourist products.
‘’The Russian Federation is the most densely populated European country and, according to statistical indicators of arrivals and overnight stays, it is not even among the top twenty countries in Croatia. Thus, there is a lot of room for improving cooperation and increasing the number of arrivals of Russian tourists’’, explained Ružička.
At the workshop, it was agreed that the Croatian Chamber of Commerce will continue to provide support in promoting the work and operations of Croatian national airline company Croatia Airlines and will participate in the preparation and implementation of the company's tourist workshop in St. Petersburg. The aim of the workshop is to promote direct flights of Croatia Airlines from Zagreb to St. Petersburg.