Croatia Registers Even Better Tourist Season than Expected
BalkanTravellers.com
The number of people who have visited Croatia during the first seven months of the year reached 6.13 million, bringing the total number of overnight stays to almost 32 million, or a 6 per cent increase, according to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency which cited the Croatian Hina news agency.
Similarly, the income from tourism grew more than by the expected 5 per cent, Damir Bajs, Minister of Tourism, told media. He added that the total income from tourism this year may reach 7.3 billion euro and that hotel owners are expecting their income for 2008 to increase by 10 per cent.
Croatia, according to the publication, was visited this year mainly by tourists from Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, the Czeck Republic and France.
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Epicure
Croatia
The Truffle Rush
The Istria Peninsula in Northern Croatia is the Klondike of the culinary world. Every October, among the Motovun forests near the Livade village and along the banks of the Mirna River, there are swarming hoards of people and dogs – some sources claim as many as 15,000.
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Curiosity Chest
Balkans
In Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, Traces of War Crimes and Criminals Attract Tourists
7 October 2008 | Several countries in the Western Balkans, including Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, are banking on their recent conflict-torn past and offering foreign visitors the chance to retrace the steps of war criminals and see the traces left by the wars that shook the region in the 1990s.
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Useful Reads
Greece
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (2004) | By Patrick Leigh Fermor
2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, considered one of the most important travelogues of the twentieth century by many critics. Although the book is now often described as a ‘companion text’ to the author’s later account of travels in Northern Greece, Roumeli (1966), the author reveals that he originally meant it to be ‘a single chapter among many’ that would cumulatively encompass his long travels and experience throughout Greek lands.
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
Annoyances in the Balkans
Balkans
Relentless Homophobia Rages in the Balkans
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As the first gay pride parade in Bulgaria is about to take place, amid strong opposition by nationalistic organisations and a large part of society, the high levels of persistent homophobia in the country and the Full Story
Insiders' Advice
If the relentless homophobia is already that bad, what's the attitude in general towards HIV/AIDS, given the rather worrying HIV-prevalence in Eastern Europe and Russia?
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Is it easy to drive in the Balkans? Depends. If you are looking for adrenalin, this is a cheap way to get it. Expats say the best tactics is not to get annoyed.
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How to pick the right time to go? Winter is beautiful in the high mountains, the problem is, it can be so cold! Then again, who cares how cold it is - the locals have a cheap cure: heavy red wine. Sometimes warmed up.
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The Big Book of Travelling
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Thailand
A Short Guide to the Peculiarities of Thai Food
Travel News
6 November 2008 | The capitals of Serbia and Croatia and the Greek island of Corfu are among the best European spots visited by the legendary character James Bond in the four decades of his existence on film.
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