August 28, 2021 - From August 27 until September 5, the city of Krk, on the island of Krk, will host the 15th edition of Fig Days.

Fig Days is a renowned, traditional annual gastro event that this year lasts for ten days, instead of being just a weekend festival, like it was since 2007. It includes an exhibition in the open - of fresh and dried figs - but also a wide variety of products made of figs, like jams, cakes, dry figs, brandies, and liqueurs that will be on display. The festival encourages and motivates caterers, local farmers, producers, and vendors to include the fruit in their offer, promote it, and sell their indigenous product in the streets thus contributing to the gastronomic identity of Krk.

The program of the Fig Days includes a very popular, free of charge distribution of  100 fig seedlings, but also interesting lectures on the topic of figs by the foremost expert on figs, Željko Prgomet, doc.dr.sc., and Iva Prgomet, Ph.D., as well as a book promotion. There will also be workshops on making clay figs, felting figs from Krk sheep wool, and individual counseling on fig growing.

Fig, we all know (and some of us adore it), is a tear-shaped fruit with a green skin that may ripen toward purple or brown, with sweet soft reddish flesh containing numerous crunchy seeds. It is, we are also aware, both delicious and healthy, but you might want to know, and you will learn about it if you come to Krk, that it is native to the Ficus carica, small tree species in the mulberry family, and that it has been cultivated since ancient times. It is, of course, the most widespread, and highly valued fruit of the Mediterranean (and Asia), but is now widely grown throughout the world.

On the island of Krk, the figs have been grown for centuries, but have also been wrongfully neglected in recent times. Figs can be eaten fresh or dried or processed into jam, rolls, biscuits, and other types of desserts. Since the ripe fruit does not transport and keep well, most commercial production is in dried and processed forms. Raw figs contain roughly 80% water and 20% carbohydrates, with negligible protein, fat, and micronutrient content. They are a moderate source of dietary fiber. But what can an excellent chef make from, of, and with figs? Crazy and most delicious dishes, for sure!

To mark the 15th anniversary of the project, on Monday, August 30, a special gala dinner will be held in the Marina Blue restaurant of the Marina hotel in Krk. It will be a fine dining event, a real gourmet experience provided by a young but highly esteemed and Michelin star awarded chef Deni Srdoč, supported by Spart Jazz Duo. The fig themed dinner “Fig by Deni Srdoč” will give everybody a brand new perspective on figs, and, besides the dishes - it will serve fantastic wines from Kvarner: sparkling and still, all produced locally by the winemakers of the region who most recently united in Kvarner Wines Association.

The menu consists of the most delicious dishes – like beef tartar with hollandaise sauce, focaccia toast, chives emulsion, and pickled figs, accompanied by sparkling wine Plovanić. The first course will be followed by marinated hake, fennel salad, beetroot, orange and fig sauce, and spirulina mayonnaise accompanied by Žlahtina Sveta Lucija of the Estate Winery Katunar, recently awarded Bronze Decanter in London. Next, risotto with wild mushrooms and fig reduction will be on the menu, together with excellent rosé Trojišćina by Ivica Dobrinčić of Šipun winery. The main course will, of course, be a lamb dish – namely - confit lamb glazed with figs, potato espuma, sauteed vegetables, and lamb jus. Kuća vina Ivan Katunar winery produces the exquisite Sansigot wine from the eponymous wine variety originating from Susak island, and saved by the winemakers of Vrbnik, Kuća vina Ivan Katunar, specifically.

For the ones with a sweet tooth, chocolate terrine, vanilla cream, hazelnut crumble and figs flambé will make a beautiful end to this fig story, or rather – a fairytale, with Misno vino (Žlahitna variety) by Gospoja winery to wash it down. The most interesting for the tourists, however, is a special restaurant offer in the Krk city area for the whole time of the festival, all with the common theme: fig(s).

During “Fig Days” – 15 restaurants, bistros, wine, and food bars, and “konobas” in the area will be serving delicious dishes with figs. You might want to try steak in shrimps and fig sauce with a side dish of homemade pasta šurlice with shrimps and figs sauce…Or, fish fillet with apricots and dried figs in prosecco; pork loin in fig sauce; mouth-watering dried figs in mascarpone and cinnamon cream with pie crust, crepes, and crostatas with homemade fig jam…  Indeed, all things edible that you can imagine made out of figs or with them will be on offer for you to savour in Krk, so why don’t you come and have fun at the very end of summer, or just take it as a sort of a prelude to the upcoming autumn days?

More about the project at https://www.tz-krk.hr/en/15th-fig-days-city-of-krk

For more on lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

August 28, 2021 - The largest beer festival in Croatia, the Karlovac Beer Days, lasts until August 31, and 12 famous local musicians and bands will take turns on the stage for five days. In addition to a five-day music and stage spectacle, Beer Days also offer a rich program of additional activities.

A spectacular laser show, a virtuoso performance by the dance group Atomic Dance Factory and institutions of the domestic music scene, Massimo and Zabranjeno pušenje, marked the first day of the 34th edition of the Karlovac Beer Days, reports Turističke Priče. The exciting opening of this year's Beer Days hinted that another unforgettable festival awaits the people of Karlovac and their visitors.

Dani piva Karlovac (Facebook)

With the opening of Karlovac Beer Days, the city has become a dynamic stage where the main roles are played by beer lovers, the best local musicians, and an excellent tourist and gastronomic offer. The exciting first day of one of the most anticipated domestic beer festivals was rounded off by a kind of rock music institution: No Smoking.

By performing in front of the Karlovac audience, this energetic band proved why it has been pushing the musical boundaries in the region for more than 40 years, and Z ++, Nipplepeople, Vojko V, Tight Grips, Silente, Goran Bare & Majke, Natali Dizdar, TBF, Detour, and Željko Bebek will dance with the audience from the stage during the festival. In addition to performances by well-known local performers, visitors can expect additional activities that begin in the morning.

Dani piva Karlovac (Facebook)

At the Karlovac Beer Days, it is necessary to show the EU digital COVID certificate only in the immediate vicinity of the stage. Visitors who will follow the program outside the enclosure where they are not required to have an EU digital certificate, but should comply with the prescribed epidemiological measures. For visitors who do not own it, the city of Karlovac organized a quick antigen test at a price of 100 kuna.

For everything you need to know about Karlovac, visit Total Croatia's complete guide HERE.

For more on lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

ZAGREB, 28 Aug, 2021 - A member of parliament from the Croatian Sovereignists party, Marko Milanović Litre, said on Saturday that his party was launching a campaign for a referendum on the introduction of the euro, criticising the government for ignoring citizens' opinion on the matter.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Croatian National Bank Governor Boris Vujčić and a whole set of Brussels bureaucrats have decided on their own that Croatia should join the euro area, Milanović Litre said in a Facebook post, noting that his party had launched a campaign to protect the national currency, the kuna.

"Referendum is the only way to accomplish that," he said.

Criticising Plenković and his government's attitude to referendum initiatives and what he called disregard for citizens' role in them, Milanović Litre said that that attitude was evidenced by Plenković's recent statement that "from a formal and legal point of view, a referendum on the introduction of the euro was already held in 2012 and a new one is not necessary."

The MP said that ballots for the 2012 referendum on Croatia's accession to the EU, to which Plenković was referring, featured only one question: "Are you in favour of Croatia's accession to the European Union?" and that the referendum campaign made no mention of accession to the euro area.

The Croatian people have the right to state their opinion on all important topics that affect their lives, notably decisions whereby a part of their hard-won sovereignty is ceded to Brussels, said Milanović Litre, adding that Croatia was poorly prepared for EU membership.

For more on politics, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 28 Aug, 2021 - The 40th local food festival "What are old folks ate" opened in Vrbovec, some 40 kilometres northeast of Zagreb on Friday, with President Zoran Milanović attending.

In his address, Milanović, under whose auspices the event is being held, said that the event was not so much about tourism as about preserving tradition.

"You are preserving the memory, the material memory of something that is part of you. That is important, that counts," he said, calling again on everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The 40th "What our old folks ate" festival is taking place from 27 to 29 August. It was not held in 2020 due to an unfavourable epidemiological situation.

For more on lifestyle, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 28 Aug, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 595 new coronavirus cases and six COVID-19-related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday, noting that 10,173 tests were conducted in that period.

There are currently 3,434 active cases, including 374 hospitalised patients, of whom 43 are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of the disease was reported in Croatia, 372,814 people have been infected, of whom 8,324 have died.

A total of 361,056 people have recovered, including 508 in the last 24 hours.

Currently 8,061 people are self-isolating.

To date, 2,521,032 people have been tested.

To date, 3,253,119 vaccine doses have been administered, with 42.30% of the population having been vaccinated, including 50.81% of adults.

One dose has been administered to 1,716,520 persons while 1,604,377 persons have been fully vaccinated -- 1,536,599 have received both doses and 67,778 have received the single-dose Janssen vaccine -- which is 47.55% of the adult population.

For more on COVID-19, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

August 28, 2021 - Croatia has learned it will be in the fourth-strongest group in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers draw. 

The Croatia national basketball team is placed in the fourth-strongest group for the 2023 World Cup qualifiers draw, which will be held on Tuesday, August 31, at the headquarters of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) in Mies, Switzerland, starting at noon.

Croatian is in the same group as Montenegro, Latvia, and Ukraine and cannot play these teams in the first round of qualifications. The 2023 World Cup will be hosted by the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia from August 25 to September 10, 2023.

Spain, France, Slovenia, and Serbia are in the first strong group of the European part of the qualifications, in which 32 national teams will fight for 12 places leading to the World Cup. The national teams are distributed according to the position on the current FIBA ​​rankings.

The second group includes Italy, Lithuania, Greece, and Germany, and the third includes the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, and Turkey. In the fifth is Finland, Georgia, Belgium, and Hungary, in the sixth is Great Britain, Israel, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and the Netherlands, in the seventh is Iceland, Estonia, Bulgaria, and Belarus, and in the eighth is Northern Macedonia, Sweden, Portugal, and Slovakia.

Eight groups with four national teams will be drawn, from which the first three will continue the competition in the second round, transferring all the results from the first part. In the second part of the qualifications, by merging three national teams, four new groups of six teams will be created, of which the three best will qualify for the World Cup.

The same qualification method was applied for the 2019 World Cup in China, the first in which 32 national teams competed and Croatia failed to qualify.

In six qualifying cycles, each national team will play 12 matches, six at home and away.

The first qualifying cycle in which each national team will play two matches is from November 22 to 30 this year. Then, two more matches will be played from February 21 to March 1, 2022, and the first round of qualifications will end from June 27 to July 5 next year.

The second part of the qualifiers will start with two games from August 22 to 30, 2022, continue with the second cycle from November 7 to 15, and end in 2023 with the last two games from February 20 to 28. 

Croatia played their last big competition in 2017 in the European Championship where they were defeated by Russia in the round of 16. Their next big competition will be EuroBasket 2022, hosted by the Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, and Germany. Croatia is placed in Group C, which is hosted by Milan, with the national teams of Greece, Ukraine, Great Britain, and Estonia.

Croatia has played in the World Cup three times so far. The generation led by Toni Kukoč and Dino Rađa won a bronze medal in Canada in 1994. At the 2010 World Cup in Turkey, Croatia was defeated by Serbia in the round of 16, and four years later in Spain, Croatia lost to France in the same phase of the competition.

Source: HRT 

To follow the latest sports news in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

To learn more about sport in Croatia, CLICK HERE.

August 28, 2021 - While the summer weather has disappeared, albeit temporarily, it has not affected the passengers at Split Airport and Ferry Port this weekend, with an expected 120,000 due to travel through! 

Although the weather conditions in recent days have hinted that summer is coming to an end, the figures from Split ports say otherwise, because 120,000 passengers in 190 planes and 16,000 vehicles will pass through them this weekend, reports T.portal.

The head of the Reception and Dispatch Service at Split Airport, Mate Melvan, confirmed there will be a pretty good weekend ahead with 190 planes and 40,000 passengers, although slightly more of them departing than arriving. 

"There is more pressure on departures than arrivals, but it is natural for this time of year. We can also confirm that the numbers are still high, the traffic is high intensity. We have already exceeded the figure of 400 thousand in August, which means we are heading towards one million this year. We will have the final results at the end of the month," Melvan added.

80,000 passengers and 16,000 vehicles will pass through the Split Ferry Port over the weekend. There, too, the departure of passengers to Split is more pronounced than earlier this season, which means that they are leaving the island for the mainland, reveals Jelena Ivulić from Jadrolinija.

"Due to the crowds in Supetar, we have had an extra line that sailed at 8:45 am from Split. Therefore, we do not have much pressure from Split, and although passengers still arrive, the truth is at a slower pace. Certainly, the season is not over yet since passengers are still coming," Ivulić said.

It is also interesting to note that by August 15, Jadrolinija had a total of 5.3 million passengers and 1.7 million vehicles on the entire coast, which is 85 percent of the turnover from the pre-pandemic 2019.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

August the 28th, 2021 - The director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, has discussed the epidemiological situation, the fact that Croatia continues to be a safe tourist destination, anti-epidemic measures and the idea of a third dose of the vaccine.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Krunoslav Capak stated on Thursday that Croatia currently has the most favourable epidemiological situation of all tourist countries in Europe, as well as of many other tourist countries globally. This has been reaffirmed by Croatia remaining orange on the ECDC's latest corona map update.

“It’s very good news; no additional measures are being introduced for tourists leaving Croatia to return home, and if we do turn red, then additional measures can be introduced, including quarantine,'' Krunoslav Capak told Dnevnik Nova TV.

He reported that no additional measures are being planned so far, and the existing ones will be extended until September the 15th, 2021.

“Now we have a slightly worse situation than we did at the same time last year, and the fourth wave started earlier than last year. Our expectations are that, given that we have more than 50 percent of the population vaccinated, it won't be such big growth and it won't last long," he added.

He noted that covid certificates have been introduced for gatherings of more than fifty people in Dalmatian and coastal counties and for a hundred people in continental counties, adding that they haven't yet considered introducing them for shopping centres, restaurants and cafes, although this option remains open and all is applicable in some European countries.

Consideration is also being given to using the certificates for the healthcare system and the social security system. Because, as Krunoslav Capak stated, it is important that when it comes to healthcare system, both patients and staff should try to avoid potentially infecting each other if possible.

“The use of covid certificates is tremendously important here, and we'd prefer everyone to be vaccinated,'' he pointed out.

"In some EU countries where covid certificates have been introduced, testing restrictions for asymptomatic people are being considered, so this will be one of the mechanisms in Croatia. We didn't definitely agree on when that would put put into practice,'' he said.

When asked about the vaccination of children, Krunoslav Capak noted that they support the vaccination of children aged 12 to 18, especially those with chronic underlying diseases where the risk of a severe form of the disease should it be contracted be higher.

"Now we're talking about it and stimulating the vaccination of children in their final grades of high school, and then high schools in which, due to the nature of the type of education they conduct, there is contact with more people,'' he added. He also invited every other child who wanted to, to come to receive the vaccination together with their parents.

Krunoslav Capak says the idea of a third dose of the vaccine is being discussed intensively, and Europe's position is rather conservative on the issue - most EU countries believe there is still a long way to go before we should need to start talking about that.

"So far, we don't have the infrastructure in place for that, nor the possibility to record the third dose, and we're also working on that. We epidemiologists will agree on which vulnerable groups we'll start giving the third dose too first,'' he stressed.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language.