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
According to the latest Arton Capital's Passport Index, Singapore has ‘’the most powerful’’ passport in the world, whilst Croatia has placed as the 14th on the list.
Arton Capital’s Passport Index is the world’s most popular online interactive tool, which collects, displays and ranks the passports of over 190 world countries.
Earlier this year, Croatia was in the 15th place, according to this index, however, the country made a step forward and now it shares the 14th place with Brazil. And in 2015 the Croatian passport was ranked in 17th position.
The passport value is determined by a set of parameters; however, the visa is the most important of them.
Singapore has the most powerful passport in the world because its citizens can travel to the largest number of world countries visa-free. The country is followed by Germany (2nd), Sweden, South Korea (3rd), Denmark, Finland, Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Japan, United Kingdom (4th), whilst Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Portugal are in the 5th place on the list.
It is interesting to note that the US passport is ranked as the sixth most powerful passport in the world after Donald Trump became the President, because Turkey and Central African Republic re-introduced visas for Americans.
As far as Croatian passport is concerned, Croats can travel to 144 countries around the globe visa-free; however, the visa is required for Croatian citizens going to almost all African and Middle Eastern countries, as well as to Russia and the United States. In total Croatians have to apply for visas for travel in 54 countries, including the USA, Australia and Russia.
In addition, as Croatia is the EU member country, the Croatian passport is much more powerful than passports of all the other Balkan countries. Only the Slovenian passport is ''stronger'' than Croatian, it ranked as the 10th on the Arton Capital’s Passport Index.
The bottom five world’s countries with ‘’the weakest passport’’ are Somalia, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Map of the passports colours of the world - Passport Index
Located to the east side of the historic city centre is the Dominican Monastery. This impressive sacral building holds many interesting secrets. You reach the monastery entrance by climbing up a stone stairway with an equally impressive stone balustrade.
It was constructed in the 14th century in a Gothic-Renaissance style and contains an exquisite cloister, which was added in the 15th century, filled with orange trees and palms. The cloister is an interesting experience, especially in the warmer summer months, and a nice break from the crowds.
The main, single-nave church is large and spacious and features a painting by the Cavtat artist Vlaho Bukovac. There are 15th and 16th century works of art and a large stained glass window. The monastery complex also holds a museum, which is accessed through the cloister, and exhibits religious works by famous Dubrovnik artists.
The Czech low-cost airline SmartWings will launch flights to Dubrovnik for the summer season of 2018 from two polish destinations. SmartWings, which has a fleet size of 23, will start connections between the Polish capital Warsaw and Katowice, in the southwest of Poland, from the beginning of May next year.
The flights to Warsaw will be operated three times a week and the flight time is a little over 2 hours. Whilst the flights to Katowice will also be operated three times a week, on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays.
By embarking on the rocket launcher "Dubrovnik", the supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović with other senior officials, commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Liberation of South Croatia in the Port of Dubrovnik today.
The elaborate ceremony was held in Port of Dubrovnik in Gruz and was modelled on during the official assembly of the troops of the Croatian Army on the 29th of October 1991.
The ceremony was attended by the President of the Republic of Croatia, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia and Defense Minister Damir Krstičević, as well as the Interior Minister Davor Božinović and Croatian Defense Counsel Tomo Medved.
The official ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the liberation of southern Croatia featured a spectacular display by MIG fighter aircraft.
The autumn has been kind to Dubrovnik with mild weather, endless blue skies and plenty of warm sunshine. With temperatures in the low twenties for most of the month tourists and locals have been enjoying an extremely pleasant end to 2017 and with only 56 days left until Christmas there are still swimmers enjoying the Adriatic Sea.
This weekend the island of Lokrum, just a long stone’s throw from the Old City of Dubrovnik, was awash with guests as the ferries continued to run.
Swimmers dived in the Adriatic, which at around 21 degrees is still more than pleasant, al fresco coffees and lunches were abound and walks around the unspoilt nature topped off a lovely weekend. The last ferry leaves the island today at 4 o’clock and if the weather continues to be mild the ferries line should run into November.
The new iPhone X model will cost you between 9,569 Kuna and 10,999 Kuna. The latest smartphone from Apple, with 64 gigabytes of memory, will set Croatians back two monthly salaries at 9,569 Kunas and the top-of-the-range model with a massive 256 gigabytes is an astronomic 10,999 Kuna.
Pre-orders for the latest smartphone started yesterday and the first deliveries will start on the 3rd of November. These prices are the retail prices and certain operators will of course be offering the chance to purchase on a monthly basis. For example, with VIP the price is 2,899 Kuna and then a monthly payment of 210 Kuna over 24 months. However, you have to add to this the monthly phone tariff, which is 179 Kunas, meaning that the monthly total would be 389 Kuna.
The new iPhone is around 3,000 Kuna more expensive than the iPhone 8, and when compared to the price in the US or Germany it is more expensive. In the US the iPhone X costs $999, whilst in Croatia it is $1,482, in Germany it costs 1,149 Euro, whilst in Croatia is costs 1,273 Euros. However, in spite of these price differences the operators in Croatia are reporting that sales are going very well.
The Croatian Minister of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butkovic has signed contracts worth 110 million Euros for financing inland waterway projects.
The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level, will co-finance two projects; an upgrade of infrastructure in the port of Slavonski Brod as well as the development of an environmental impact assessment study and project documentation for the Sava River, which will contribute to its revitalization as a maritime traffic waterway.
The director of the Port Authority Slavonski Brod Marijan Juric commented that the new port project is estimated at more than 170 million Kunas, needed for infrastructure construction and a purchase of three cranes.
‘’The construction of the new container port should be completed by March 2020. We expect traffic of 1,5 to 2 million tonnes a year. Around 1,000 people transport each million tonnes of loaded goods. There is a land of 500 hectares near the port that can also be used’’, explained Juric.
After the completion of this significant project, the new port in Slavonski Brod will become the largest container river port in Croatia and in this part of Europe.
Celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the liberation of southern Croatia will take place today in Dubrovnik with an impressive military display expected. MIG fighter planes will fly by, parades of soldiers will walk down the Stradun and the Croatian Navy is docked in the Port of Dubrovnik.
Everything is ready for a memorable day in the city and with the huge Croatian flag proudly waving over the city from Srd Mountain the celebrations of this important day should be extraordinary.