May 14, 2021 - After starting their music career busking in the streets and cafes in Jelsa, The Leedham Sisters show their love of Croatia by debuting 'Ode to the Bura' on Home Stage.

Of the many Brits who bought holiday houses in Croatia, I don't think I have met any who have got more out of their investment than one family from Staffordshire. When I sold a goat shed in the almost abandoned village of Selca above Stari Grad on Hvar to a very nice couple back in 2004, I had no idea how much they would feature in my life. 

Three adorable children, aged 2, 6 and 10 completed the family, and they enthusiastically turned the ruined goat shed of 15m2 into a fabulous holiday home which at times has slept 15 people (yes 1 person per 1m2). The girls loved music, and after a few years, when they were about 6, 10, and 14, the two older ones decided to start busking on the streets of Jelsa.

And so The Leedham SIsters were born. 

Angelic voices, beautiful kids, polite and smiley - I watched with envy as they could earn more in an hour's busking than I could in a week of blogging. 

Over a couple of cold ones with their parents, I agreed to organise a couple of gigs for them. When I say gig, it started out at the local cafe, with a paper plate saying "The Leedham Sisters live at 20:00" posted on a window. These concerts were always relaxed and popular with tourists passing by,  and the youngest child was a demon at collecting cash at the end. 

Here is some audio and great photo collage from one of their earliest gigs at the Total Hvar office, Cafe Splendid, back in 2013. 

Thanks to their undeniable talent and the efforts of their hard-working manager, their island fame quickly spread, and soon they were providing the entertainment at the Hvar Wine Association tasting evenings, while their parents drank away their fee. You can see them performing in the video above, starting at 02;22 (although the video - with English subtitles - is a nice snapshot of the role of wine in Hvar life). 

Their fame spread, and soon they were the support act at the biggest event on the island, the Puhijada, or edible dormouse festival (yes really), performing in front of 4,000 people. 

Time passed, kids became students, I moved from Hvar, and I haven't seen The Leedham Sisters in a couple of years, but I do follow their progress. 

And how lovely to see them doing so well, including this appearance on Home Stage last week, where they debuted a song professing their love of Croatia, called Ode to the Bura. 

Their interview starts at 35:58, and Ode to the Bura begins at 43:50. There is even a mention of some manager called Paul. 

Those lovely young voices a decade ago are now magnificent. 

Go Maddy, Hattie and Charlotte! How about a reunion concert at Cafe Splendid in Jelsa this summer?

You can follow The Leedham Sisters on Facebook.

May the 13th, 2021 - Croatia's famed Ozujsko beer has teamed up with several associations and clubs from across the country to clean up illegally disposed of waste all over Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, Ozujsko beer, in cooperation with numerous environmentally conscious Croatian clubs and associations, has begun organising ''actions'' to clean up illegal landfills throughout the Republic of Croatia.

As part of Ozujsko beer's current socially responsible campaign, the well known Croatian beer company plans to clean up fifteen illegal landfills, and the first in a series of actions was held last weekend in the Eastern city of Osijek with the support of the Green Osijek Association. Lake Bajer was the location of that particular action.

''We pulled a washing machine, a stove, an antique wooden chair, some wooden planks and a PVC tarpaulin out of the lake. In addition, we cleaned up several locations around the lake where we found a variety of waste: from construction waste to dumped carpets. Along with us volunteers from the Green Osijek Association, the action was joined by representatives of the local fishing club, as well as scouts from the Slavonski hrast scout club. Ozujsko beer, in addition to giving us donations, provided us with all the tools, protective gloves and cleaning equipment, hats, T-shirts and bags we needed. In just a few hours of cleaning up the site, we filled a container with 30 large bags full of rubbish,'' said Dinko Pesic, the project manager of the Green Osijek Association.

The next Ozujsko beer clean up action is planned for May the 15th in Zagreb's Savica district with the help of the BIOM Association, followed by the cleaning of landfills in Solin on May the 22nd with the help of the Sunce Split Association, and a day later, the Vodomar Association from Slunj will join the action. The hard-working team of volunteers then plans to move on to Kvarner. The Zmergo Association will be helping to clean up the waste in Opatija on the Carmen Sylva promenade on May the 28th, and a day later, the Eripio Association will help clean up in Matulji.

The first round of this big action is set to end on the first Saturday in June, when Seline in the municipality of Promina will be cleaned up with the help of the Krka Knin Association. The cleaning actions are joined by partners like Pevex and Pik who will ensure that volunteers in the field don't lack anything for the job, and in addition to volunteers and representatives of various associations and clubs, volunteers and representatives of the Zagreb Brewery (Zagrebacka pivovara) will also participate in the actions.

"Wild landfills are a big problem across Croatia and we want to raise awareness about this problem. They're an indication that we're still, as a society, not environmentally aware enough or caring about what we're leaving behind to younger generations. Ozujsko beer always speaks out about current social issues in its own way, and even now we wanted to arouse emotion in our fellow citizens and once again give a concrete contribution to raising the quality of life. In our ''Protected by Law'' campaign, we raised as much as 650,000 kuna for legally protected animals, ie the lynx, wolf, dolphin and griffon vulture, and the funds raised were donated,'' they stated from Ozujsko beer.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

May the 13th, 2021 - Following an entire year of coronavirus pandemic induced absence, the Zagreb-Belgrade Flixbus line will be reintroduced, facilitating cheap road travel between the two capital cities.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, thanks to the increasingly favourable epidemiological situation and the growing vaccination rate here in Croatia, as well as in neighbouring Serbia and various other European countries, the need for movement is finally increasing again.

Consequently, the Zagreb-Belgrade FlixBus line will re-establish international bus lines to Serbia up to four times a week as of this month, more precisely as of May the 20th, thus connecting the Croatian and Serbian capitals regularly and cheaply once again.

"We intended to start opening the network of lines to Serbia earlier than this, as we did with other European countries where epidemiological conditions allowed for that earlier. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible before now, but the demand of passengers for travel, which is visibly growing as the epidemiological situation gradually improves, prompted us to start with the Zagreb-Belgrade Flixbus line again anyway,'' explained Ante Grbesa, the director of the FlixBus CEE South region.

Given the optimistic expectations surrounding the improving epidemiological situation more or less all across Europe, FlixBus will launch all of the international lines in May and June on which it operated back in pre-pandemic 2019.

This season, Flixbus will once again connect Croatia with fifty destinations in eight countries, which are also key emitting markets for Croatia. These include Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, and neighbouring Hungary and Serbia.

''The epidemiological measures are easing across many European countries and together with our bus partners, we're looking forward to returning on an ever-increasing scale. We hope that the situation will allow us to do that, and that the planned opening of most of the network of lines from the record year of 2019 will be completely fulfilled again,'' concluded Grbesa.

For more, follow our travel section.

May the 13th, 2021 - There will be no more AstraZeneca in Croatia as of summer, more precisely as of next month, as the contract between the European Union (EU) and AstraZeneca is set to expire. Here are what those who have received their first dose of AstraZeneca in Croatia need to do in order to get their second one.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, after June 2021, the European Union's contract with AstraZeneca will expire and there will be no new orders for these vaccines until further notice, European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton recently revealed.

There will, however, continue to be enough doses of this vaccine for those who have to receive a second dose of AstraZeneca in Croatia, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, assured on Monday. The answer from the Croatian Institute of Public Health says that despite the expiration of the EU's contract with AstraZeneca looming, all 2.7 million doses of this vaccine ordered last year will arrive in Croatia as normal and at intervals.

This was also confirmed by Croatian Health Minister Vili Beros, 24sata reports.

"Through the joint procurement of the European Commission (EC), a total of 2.705 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were ordered for Croatia, and this agreement is still in force. In case of possible changes, we'll be sure to inform the public following the decision of the European Commission,'' Beros explained when conveying the information he received on the topic of AstraZeneca in Croatia.

There should be no problems for anyone needing their second dose of AstraZeneca in Croatia, because the country has used only 258 thousand of the 460 thousand doses of this vaccine received so far.

The director of the Andrija Stampar Institute, Zvonimir Sostar, added that 21 thousand additional doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive in Croatia this week and he believes that enough will still be found for all those requiring their second dose.

On Monday, he says, fewer people came to the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebacki Velesajam) for their first dose of vaccination against the novel coronavirus than were invited. He has stated that he believes that this is precisely because of the unpopularity of this particular vaccine and that owing to that, enough of it will be left to provide people with their second dose when that time comes.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of testing centres and vaccination points up and down the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

May the 13th, 2021 - Ivana Pavic Simetin of the Croatian Institute of Public Health has discussed what so-called ''covid passports'' will mean for people in practice for those who have been fully vaccinated, only had one dose, or have proof of their recovery from the disease.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic was commented on for HRT by the Deputy Director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Ivana Pavic Simetin, epidemiologist Ozren Polasek and the Chief of the Istrian Civil Protection Directorate, Dino Kozlevac.

“Mortality is always late in relation to the incidence of the disease, so the number of falls in mortality isn't so obvious, although we can see it in some indicators. The incidence of the disease has definitely been declining since April the 18th when things peaked and when we had more than 530 daily average cases of infection per million inhabitants. Yesterday that number stood at 320, so we're recording a continuous decline,'' said Ivana Pavic Simetin.

"This shows that the measures are working and that we're preparing well for the tourist season," noted Ivana Pavic Simetin, adding that the death rate will also begin to fall.

She said that Croatia's position when it comes to vaccination against the novel coronavirus with both doses of AstraZeneca vaccine hasn't changed and that, as we also reported, there will be enough for both doses despite the EU's contract with AstraZeneca expiring.

"The interval is twelve weeks between the two doses of vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has allowed us to vaccinate people with the first dose of this vaccine from February until now, there are only a few people who have already been vaccinated with two doses of this vaccine," she said.

“The situation has been stable for several weeks now, with a constant decline. But we aren't entirely happy with the situation, people with severe symptoms still end up in the hospital and this burdens our system. We had 80 people in hospital recently. Mortality is present almost daily. Things are going well, but we mustn't give in to pressure and open up again too soon, that's the only danger. We believe that things will be okay in June and July,'' said Dino Kozlevac, adding that the situation with vaccination in Istria is good.

"The interest has been great from the beginning and it's only growing every day. As of two days ago, we vaccinated about 50,000 people with the first dose and about 13,000 people with the second dose. The organisation works perfectly at 11 points for mass vaccination, and the action of vaccinating tourist workers is underway,'' said Kozlevac.

“Last week, 17,798 doses arrived and all of them were administered. We're satisfied and that's the key, I expect that in the coming weeks we will vaccinate 50 percent of the adult population and that's the right path to go down,'' he added.

Epidemiologist Ozren Polasek tried to explain what is being achieved by these rehearsal events and gatherings.

"Here we can obtain the most interesting information about how the virus spreads in more or less controlled conditions. Namely, when you find someone who tests positive, you can only ask them about who they've been exposed to in the past, and they might not remember everyone. At these experimental gatherings, we're primarily interested in how much two doses of the vaccine protects a person, because autumn and next year depend on that,'' said Polasek.

"In the case of recovery from the disease, covid passports are valid for six months, in case of vaccination, they have no expiration date,'' he added.

Ivana Pavic Simetin says that we currently have three components of the so-called covid-passports - vaccination, recovery and negative PCR or antigen test.

"As for vaccinations, for now these passports don't have a shelf life, but in case of recovery following contracting the actual illness, they're valid for six months," she added.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, border and quarantine rules, as well as the locations of testing centres and vaccination points across the country, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

May 13, 2021 - TCN's announcement of direct flights to Dubrovnik from LA and New York with PRAGUSA.ONE earlier this month was met with a combination of joy and skepticism. An interview with PRAGUSA.ONE CEO Kresimir Budinski.

If I had a dollar for every flight announcement or new airline that was starting in Croatia over the last decade... 

After the near-collapse of the global aviation industry last year due to the pandemic, some airlines and routes are coming back stronger than before. Ryanair's aggressive entry into the Zagreb market and its challenging of Croatian Airlines subsidies is huge news for the Croatian capital, but down in Dubrovnik, the luxury tourism sector is buzzing at the flight announcements from the United States. 

I got a LOT of criticism when I reported that Delta were set to announce direct flights from New York to Dubrovnik, a full week before the official announcement. I am long enough in this business to know that speculation without confirmation is counterproductive. But as my sources for Delta were rock solid, I was confident enough to publish - and be the first with the news. 

Interest from the North American market is huge. TCN, through its award-winning Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community, Kresimir Macan and Nikolina Vicelic, organised a trip for ABC News to Dubrovnik last summer, which culminated in 6 feature stories on American travel to Dubrovnik, including this one above on Good Morning America, which was watched by 12.5 million people. 

Many people have been working very hard on establishing direct flights to Croatia from North America, and the announcement on April 19 that United would fly from New York to Dubrovnik turned out to be just the first in a series of good news stories. 

The news got even better on May 2, as TCN was first to publish news of direct flights to Kings Landing from both New York AND Los Angeles with a new airline, PRAGUSA.ONE.

The news was met with a mixture of joy and skepticism. Who was this airline, and how could they pull off such flights?

I decided to reach out to the PRAGUSA.ONE CEO, Kresimir Budinski, to ask him directly. We met for a couple of cold ones in Dubrovnik recently, where I asked him for more details. The good news is that he does exist, seems very committed, and is clearly passionate about what he does. Will these flights happen? I obviously don't have the answer, so let me hand over to a man with more knowledge on the subject, and you can judge for yourself. 

1. You have announced direct flights from Los Angeles and New York to Dubrovnik, which is amazing, congratulations! Not many people have heard of PRAGUSA.ONE, so could you first tell us a little about your company?

PRAGUSA.ONE Ltd is a company established in August 2020 with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company is established as a travel company with a 5Y transformation plan to become an airline with tailored travel products operating on a point-to-point basis. It is a privately owned company.

2. And now tell us how you managed to do what so many others have tried and failed?

The market is passing currently through a big transformation due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It is the opportunity for new ideas and new business strategies to grab its position in the process of market recovery.

3. Is it a secret to tell us how you managed to pull this off?

Almost a year of hard work where we combined our skills, experience, and market conditions. Decisions are made on time and we are on the right way to become a successful company.

4. Can you tell us a little about the negotiating process with Croatian authorities? This is a particular area of interest to me...

We had contact with two institutions. Dubrovnik Airport and Croatian Civil Aviation Agency were introduced with the project and our intentions in September 2020. Both institutions welcomed our project at that time.

5. Your message to the many skeptics out there?

There is no message. Leave them to live in their cosmos. Sending a message and trying to change their mindsets is a job for the psychotherapist.

6. Tell us about the demand for Croatia from North America. Both United and Delta have also announced New York to Dubrovnik connections.

There is a lot of demand for all three companies. Even there is a space to scale up incoming capacity. So far 2000+ individuals registered to travel with PRAGUSA.ONE. Dozen of US travel agents received our full travel package offers and we expect to sell our capacity in the next 30 days. The total incoming capacity of PRAGUSA.ONE is 30,400 seats. It means that all three companies have the capacity of 50,000 seats from the US until the end of October 2021.

7. If this summer goes as you hope, what are your further plans for PRAGUSA.ONE and Croatia?

Our long-term plan is to open direct flights in 2022 from Los Angeles, New York, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Beijing, Chengdu, and Tokyo. We will operate from 2 bases, Prague and Dubrovnik with the fleet of Airbus A330 and A350. Alongside that, we have a special focus on the Chinese market development and a special Airbus A350 sub fleet to operate just China.

8. And finally, the details. When do flights from New York and LA to Dubrovnik start, how often, when do they stop, how much do they cost, and when and where can we buy tickets?

First flights scheduled for 21st June 2021 with the flight to New York (EWR) followed by the first flight to Los Angeles (LAX) on 22nd June 2021. Both flights will operate three flights per week. Fares are starting from $790 for one-way and $1,190 return on New York route. Fares on Los Angeles route are starting at $990 for one-way and $1,490 return economy. Reservations are available on PRAGUSA.ONE website and ticket sales start on 24th May 2021 (www.pragusa.one).

9. And finally, finally... on a scale of 1% to 100%, how confident are you that these flights will happen?

99%

This is a story we will be following closely, and we will post updates as soon as we have them.

In the meantime, more information on the official PRAGUSA.ONE website. 

For the latest flight news, check out the dedicated flights to Croatia section.

Flying to Croatia in 2021? What you need to know in the TC Flights to Croatia guide. 

May 12, 2021 -  The way things are going, eternal life might be a reality for this Croatian immortal: meet Joža Manolić, second Croatian Prime Minister and the Yugoslavian secret agent that defeated COVID-19 in his 102nd year of life.

With corona spreading through the world like butter on bread, everyone needs to be careful, but especially people who are old and/or have chronic diseases.

So when someone close to 100 survives the infection, it's a news story worthy of international attention.

And, a similar case most recently happened in Croatia. As Index.hr reports, one man, who turned 101 two months ago was fighting with the virus for three weeks. He was never hospitalized but was under the doctor's close surveillance in his home until he finally recovered. And the story spread throughout Croatia as an amazing fight, but realistically, among Croatians, the winner of this epic battle of man vs. virus was known all along. Even when it seems the virus was taking the lead at one point, there was nothing to do but watch with a smug look and think, „He'll bounce back, that virus walked into Pfizer/AstraZeneca/Johnson&Johnson/Moderna cocktail embodied naturally". Despite being the priority for vaccination by all health standards, this corona patient didn't even took the vaccine because, as he said to the press „nobody invited him, and he was waiting for his turn“.

The victorious patient's name is Joža Manolić, and he is in Croatia what Rip Thorn is in the US (only Manolić is much cooler, sorry Rip).  

If you are a paranoid doomsday awaiter, watching the Doomsday clock in panic, which, at the time of writing this article, showed 100 seconds until midnight, Croatians would say you are crazy. As long as Joža Manolić is alive, the world will keep spinning. The ultimate proof corona is bad, but not the end of us. 

screenshot / NewsBar

Croatian James Bond but without replacement actors every few movies

Born on March 22, 1920, Joža Manolić isn't only the person that has seen it all; he has done it all! 

He served as the second Croatian Prime Minister from August 24, 1990, to July 17, 1991, and is one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), but before that, he had an impressive carrier in the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia.

When he turned 18, he joined the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) and was accepted into the Croatian Communist Party when he was 19. From then, among other things, he was appointed Secretary of the Municipal Committee of SKOJ for Nova Gradiška and was named a member of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party in 1940. When WW2 broke out, he was arrested by Ustasha authorities (of the Independent State of Croatia, an ally of Hitler and Mussolini) for spreading communist propaganda in Nova Gradiška. When released from captivity, he moved to Zagreb, where he started cooperating with Yugoslav Partisans and later moved to the partisan-controlled territory. Moving up in the ranks of communist circles, Manolić broke through the very top of the Yugoslav intelligence service. Firstly in OZNA, notorious for eliminating political opponents, and later to UDBA, which was less drastic but still pretty nasty secret service you didn't want to mess with.

The go-to guy to make history, the Croatian James Bond portrayed by only one man, bright and cool. 

There is an expression for the fans of Hajduk Footbal Club that „Hajduk lives forever“ (Hajduk živi vječno). This may be true, but as their game performance shows, it's hard to be as successful in 110 years as Joža Manolić is in 101 years.  

What is even more interesting, Joža Manolić was born in 1920, three months before the conclusion of the Spanish Flu pandemic, and his 100th birthday he celebrated in Zagreb, believe it or not, happened the same day, Zagreb was hit with a powerful 5.5 Richter scale earthquake. With two wars, eight epidemics, and several financial crises survived, Manolić is really the guy you want to be next to regardless of what horrible, death-guaranteed menace is heading your way.

 Immortality recipe: healthy diet and… being a secret agent?

When famous Croatian satirist and editor of the hilarious Newsbar site, Borna Sor (who is not a stranger to TCN) interviewed Manolić in 2016, he asked „the then young 96-year-old Manolić“ how is it possible that he is still alive?

„Every secret agent either lives a long life or is killed ahead of schedule“, said Manolić in good humor.

As Jutarnji list reported, Manolić's DNA was even sequenced to scientifically research the secret of his long life in 2018. The Korean Biotechnology company doesn't really have a precise explanation of his long life, but Manolić has his entire genome on a memory stick, joining other famous people with such an honor, including Nobel prize winner James Watson, actress Glenn Close, TV host Larry King, rock star Ozzy Osbourn and several more. He is the oldest living owner of a driver's license (although he didn't extend it when he turned 100), an active driver, whose clean traffic record can put to shame much younger people causing havoc on the road, including controversial Croatian entrepreneur Tomo Horvatinčić. He was married twice, last time when he was 97 to a then-60year-old woman with whom he was a decade in a relationship. Today he is sadly a widow, outliving both of his wives.

Whether it's any famous Croatian personality or internationally recognized as Eddie Van Halen, Hugh Heffner, or Prince Phillip, there isn't a celebrity death in the country that isn't acknowledged with „Joža Manolić outlived him/her“. As you can imagine, there is an entire group on Facebook dedicated to jokes such as „We need to care for the environment to leave a nicer world to Joža Manolić“, or „Joža Manolić being in Eden before God“.

God explaining to Adam and Eve that he found Joža Manolić when he arrived © Joža Manolić je nadživio

Fascinating and publicly active, the author of this text really wanted to use the news of Manolić defeating corona to do an interview with him for TCN.

„Don't contact him for the love of god! He is over a hundred years old and just got over corona“, said my editor Iva Tatić pleading that I continue to bother diplomats and other people instead of one of the biggest living legends Croatia has ever known.

Well, maybe after he gets some rest from corona, there will be a chance for an interview.

Frankly, I don't worry Joža Manolić is going anywhere, but the question is will I live long enough to do the interview with this pristine gentleman that, while Zagreb has tons of fountains, kept the fountain of youth in his backyard.  

Learn more about history and politics in Croatia on our TC page.

For more about legends of Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 12 May, 2021 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices ended mixed on Wednesday, with the Crobex falling by 0.21% to 1,946.80 points and the Crobex10 gaining 0.10% to close at 1,201.28 points.

Turnover at the close of the training session was HRK 10.7 million, about 2 million higher than on Tuesday, and only two stocks passed the turnover mark of one million kuna.

The stock of the Atlantska Plovidba shipping company turned over HRK 2.5 million, ending the day at HRK 346 per share, down by 6.49%. The Valamar Riviera hotel company saw its share price rise by 2.35% to HRK 30.59, turning over HRK 2.3 million.

A total of 49 stocks traded today, with 19 of them registering share price decreases, 17 recording share price increases and 13 remaining stable in price.

(€1 = HRK 7.532086) 

For more about business in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.