Sunday, 09 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

Since mid-September, when they first started arriving, 581,590 migrants have passed through Croatia and 31 persons are in the process of readmission, caretaker Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic told reporters at the refugee transit centre in Slavonski Brod on Saturday.

He said the readmission was not easy but that Croatia's eastern neighbours were abiding by it. The 31 persons do not meet the conditions introduced on November 16, when Slovenia notified Croatia that it was accepting only refugees from war-hit Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Croatia is applying the same conditions and has notified Serbia and Macedonia, and since new rules were enforced, 1,110 persons were prevented from entering Croatia, he said.

Ostojic reiterated that Croatia would not enter refugee data into the Eurodac system so as not to become a return hot spot for all refugees which were not granted asylum in the rest of the EU. He reiterated that for the data to be entered into Eurodac, refugees should be first registered in the hot spots in Greece, in accordance with an EU plan.

Hina

From distant Lapland, from Rovaniemi on the edge of the Arctic Circle, Santa Claus arrived in Dubrovnik this morning. Santa and his elf helpers are on a journey around the world and Dubrovnik was chosen as another stop along the way.

Santa Claus walked through the centre of the Old City of Dubrovnik and, of course, was the main attraction for locals and tourists who took the opportunity to have their photo taken with him and his loyal helpers.

This afternoon Santa will hold a thematic workshop from 15.00pm to 19.00pm in the Lazareti complex just outside of the Old City.

Welcome to Dubrovnik Father Christmas!

santa dubrovnik1

Croatia Airlines is among the safest airlines in the world according to research by international specialized Internet portal AirlineRatings.com. The research by the website awarded Croatia Airlines six stars out of a maximum of seven stars.

In total 407 international air carriers were analyzed and were allocated between one and seven points in terms of safety.

For the third consecutive year, Qantas was named the safest airline in the world and among the top twenty there are American Airlines, Emirates, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

In compiling their assessments the experts from AirlineRatings.com took a number of factors into account, such as the number of plane crashes, whether the staff were ever punished for endangering the safety of passengers, and if the airline has a certificate from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 148 companies were awarded with the maximum number of stars, while more than 50 companies had three or fewer stars. The worst offenders were from Nepal, Indonesia and Suriname.

Most of the airlines that cooperate with Croatia Airlines were granted the maximum seven stars for safety, including Air Canada, British Airways and Alitalia. While on a par with Croatia’s national carrier were Air Serbia, Air France and Turkish Airlines.

The Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, reached a new record today with 300,000 Facebook friends. “I can boast that I have 300,000 Facebook friends. Thank you for that!” wrote the President on her Facebook page. She becomes the most popular Croatian President on social media.

“We have the most beautiful president around the globe. Our pride of Croatia, we are proud of you,” commented one of her Facebook friends.

Directory of the tourist boards inside the Dubrovnik region

 

 

Dubrovnik-Neretva County Tourist Board

Address: Šipčina 2, 20000, Dubrovnik

Tel: + 385 (0)20 324 999 Fax: + 385 (0)20 324 224

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.visitdubrovnik.hr

Dubrovnik Tourist Board

Address: Brsalje 5, 20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia

Tel: +385 (0)20 323-887

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.tzdubrovnik.hr

Branch offices of Dubrovnik Tourist Board

Gruz

Address: Obala S. Radića 32

Tel: +385 (0)20 417-983

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Župa Dubrovačka Tourist Board

Address: Šetalište dr. Franje Tuđmana 7, Srebreno, 20207 Mlini

Tel: +385 (0)20 486 254

Fax: +385 (0)20 487

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.dubrovnik-riviera.hr

Konavle Tourist Board

Address: Zidine 6, 20210, Cavtat

Tel: +385 (0)20 479 025

Fax: +385 (0)20 478 025

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.tzcavtat-konavle.hr

Ston Tourist Board

Address: Pelješki put 1, 20230, Ston

Tel: +385 (0)20 754 452

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.ston.hr

Orebić Tourist Board

Address: Zrinsko-frankopanska 2, 20250, Orebić

Tel: +385 (0)20 713 718

Fax: +385 (0)20 714 001

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.visitorebic-croatia.hr

Vela Luka Tourist Board

Address: Obala 3 br. 19 20 270 Vela Luka

Tel: +385 (0)20 813 619

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.tzvelaluka.hr

Smokvica Tourist Board

Address: Brna b.b., 20272, Smokvica, Island of Korčula

Tel: +385 (0)20 832 255

Fax: +385 (0)20 832 188

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.brna.hr

Lastovo Tourist Board

Address: Dolac 3, 20290, Lastovo

Tel: +385 (0)20 801-023

Fax: +385 (0)20 801-391

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.lastovo.hr

Mljet Tourist Board

Address: Zabrježe 2, 20225, Babino Polje

Tel: +385 (0)20 746025

Fax: +385 (0)20 746 022

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

web: www.mljet.hr

Half dead like a half-zombie, sleepy like Snow White and with my ear-phones in my ears, my brain in “flight mode” I made my way to work. But shortly before I managed to turn off all of my brain activities, a guy with a bag and a map of Dubrovnik came to me and asked me a question. My first reaction was very informative and constructive: Eh? What?! Oh yes, I still had my ear-phones in my ears and Till Lindeman was about to mention the sentence “Du hast” for the 128th time in the song of the same title. I pulled out my ear-phones and was able to hear the guy who apparently was a tourist. First, I thought that I didn’t hear the commonly used “Excuse me, could you tell me” – part. No wonder, there wasn't any “Excuse me part” there was just a roughly asked question: “This!?” Yes, the word “This” can be very well used as a very useful interrogative question. I have to mention that his English was broken like a Scandinavian Glacier.

My English isn’t in such devastated condition, just somewhere halfway between Chernobyl and Fukushima. The guy was not alone. Besides the fact that he was very grumpy, very sleepy, brain-dead and without a plan, his nationality and my name were connected to each other. He was Italian. My name means “brown” in Italian and his nationality means: “I don't speak any English only Italian, chiaro?!” He showed me the location of the Tommy market in Gruž and at that point I knew that I had to tell him or show him the brutal truth. He and his friends would have to hike the whole way back from where they had come from because we were in Lapad near the football ground. No thank you, no grazie, no grazie mille, nothing. He just turned to his friends, looked expressionless like Kirsten Stewart and scratched his head with his fingers. How many times in a minute he repeated “Merda” or “Cazzo” after I left him I don't know but I think it was enough for a lifetime of a Galapagos giant turtle! The point of the story is the fact that Italian tourists usually don't speak English.

The French are able to speak it but they won't. A couple from France asked me once without any introduction:  “Vous-êtes d’ici?” (Are you from here?) ‘cause “tout le monde” speaks French. So if you just say two words in French they continue to speak with you like with a native speaker. I made the mistake so many times and said “Oui”. Dare to make a grammatical mistake while you’re speaking French and Robespierre will cut your head off with a guillotine! They will correct you immediately because your French must be perfect, sorry, not perfect - PARFAIT s’il vous plaît! In opposed to that, if a German tourist asks you something and you speak some German he ignores that and continues to speak English. They don’t force German but I think that is because of history.

Last time when the Germans forced German somewhere abroad the things went “a little bit in the wrong direction”. I must admit that I learned the easiest and best option for the people from Spanish-speaking countries. If they ask me something I just say: Yo no hablo español! Ear-phones - in, Till Lindemann - back, brain - good-bye! Amen!

Bruno Lucic 

Today at exactly 14:07pm an earthquake shook the Dubrovnik region. The epicentre is believed to have been 48 kilometres northeast of Dubrovnik. The quake of magnitude was 4.5 on the Richter scale and was recorded near Bileca in Bosnia and Herzegovina at a depth of 10 kilometres. Tremors from the earthquake were felt in Dubrovnik as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

So far no material damage from the earthquake has been reported.

When you mention the slalom, your first association is probably a tourist resort in the Alps, possibly in the Dolomites. But a slalom in Dubrovnik? Hardly likely, unless you are surfing on the waves or bypassing the rows of restaurant tables inside the historic city centre. The flood of tables and chairs in front of restaurants, cafes, pizzerias and pastry shops has turned into a tsunami. According to statistics within the city walls there are, at least, a thousand tables and four times as many chairs. Barricades interfere, and sometimes almost block the flow of traffic in the already too narrow streets. This summer tables have sprung up like mushrooms from every corner, covering every street and square. At night, as the sun goes down, the same scene appears. Mountains of people eat and drink, the clink of cutlery and glasses, waiters who collide with passersby. The clear passages through the forest of tables are becoming more and more infrequent. The local population cannot often enter their own homes due to the “table forest.” Foreigners out for a stroll are pirouettes around the tables to get to the finish line. Happiness comes when the thousands of passengers from cruise ships sail away at night in Dubrovnik, otherwise the scrimmage throughout the evening would be unbearable.


The invasion of tables, which began five or six years ago, has reached its peak this summer. And it seems that it has finally been noticed by the city authorities who have agreed with restaurant owners an embargo on the increase on the number of "outdoor spaces" in the next three years. But no one is proposing the reduction of the current number of tables. The status quo is a compromise between the city and the restaurant owners, but it seems that the pedestrians have been forgotten. For the time being they will continue to slalom between the tables and street advertising. And only a few years outdoor tables were a rarity. Restaurants were for mostly eating inside, here and there on the terrace, and on the pavement was not exactly popular. Somehow, it was thought that space for walking should not be turned into open-air cafeteria. But somewhere along the way the rules changed. Now the tables have occupied the last remaining squares public areas. Now you can barely even see the pavement. Of course, only in summer, in the winter you have all the space you need because everything is closed. After all a ghost town has no need for “al fresco” dining.

Gabrijela Bijelic

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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