Sarah Cosi: …I discovered Croatia on one of my trips back in 2007, where I fell in love with the country (and then ended up marrying a local, who is now also my business partner at Royal Croatian Tours). Since we both love exploring and showing people the beauty of Croatia, opening our own agency just came naturally. We think we make an excellent combo, as Ivan is a local Croatian and knows all of the ins and outs of Croatia, while I’m an expat, and do all of the communication with our guests personally. Coming from Canada, I understand what our guests are looking for when planning their trip, and traveling to a foreign country.
Category: Entertainment
PingPongParkinson Virtual Reality Championship April 11, 2021
PingPongParkinson has announced the launch of PingPongParkinson Virtual Reality World Championships slated for April 11, 2021. This year’s tournament is the first-ever virtual reality (VR) parkinson’s world table tennis championships, coming after Ping Pong Parkinson, alongside the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and International Table Tennis Federation Foundation (ITTF Foundation) partnered in 2019 to host an inaugural world table tennis championship for players with Parkinson’s Disease.
Miro Gavran's plays BEER and ICECREAM online with English subtitles
Theatre Gavran will put their two hit comedy plays by the Croatian hit playwright Miro Gavran on the digital platform. The plays are ICECREAM and BEER and the recordings will be available on Saturday, March 13th at 8PM, the city of Zagreb local time. BEER is a gentle comedy about a Father and his Son. ICECREAM is a comedy with Mladena Gavran and Ana Vilenica as a mother and her daughter in their most dramatic moments. Humour and emotions are intertwined in this story portraying a relationship of two women, who are so different and so alike at the same time.
Marina Jurica singing meteorologist lead commentator for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2019
Marina Jurica graduated from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) with two degrees: one in Meteorology and the other in Opera Performance. She is persuing both of her passions. She worked in Orlando, Florida, before becoming chief meteorologist at CBS47 in 2016. She was the first female chief meteorologist in the USA, and is still one of the few female chiefs. She appeared as professional opera singer in the Canadian tour of “Les Miserables” and debuted her own show “Seasons of Love” on Broadway in 2018. Her father is from the island of Lastovo, and mother from the city of Opatija, both in Croatia: “I am a first generation American, my ENTIRE family is Croatian. Growing up in a Croatian home and French immersion school, I became tri-lingual quickly.”. On the photo, Marina Jurica is with her son John.
Nenad Bach International Newsletter No. 56: Post COVID?
“Nenad, Who Plays Ping Pong” is a short film about my passion for ping pong and using it to help those afflicted with Parkinson’s. It is an Official Selection of 2020 Mountainfilm Festival, and was chosen Daily Short Pick on FilmShortage.com, May 27th, 2020. The film is touring and was screened last week in Sao Paulo, Brazil and will be touring August 24-26 in Southampton, New York, US. You can get more information here. We are now fortunate to have the film subtitled in 15 languages. My songs “Vukovar” “Everything is Forever” and “I Will Follow” were recently played by musical genius Pete Jones on his radio program in London.
Zoran Orlic world class music photographer: Live From Chicago!
The Croatian-born photographer relocated to Chicago at an early age and began photographing bands in college. As a young musician might, he took his mantra seriously: practice, practice, practice. It wasn’t until he chanced upon the work of one of the greatest rock photographers of all time that lightning struck, and he realized what he wanted to do with his life. “I shot Jeff,” Orlic says of his first photo shoot with Wilco’s founder, Jeff Tweedy. “They liked it, and the rest is history. I just kind of never left.” From the perspective of the bands and record labels for whom he works, Orlic’s easygoing manner and ability to produce images efficiently and without getting in the way are equally as important as his artistic prowess.
Zeljko Zuanovic Croatian priest and his wonderful world of sea shells
Željko Zuanović is a Croatian catholic priest, with an interesting hobby: he collects see shells throughout the world. His collection of about 2500 shells is since 2020 exhibited in the village of Marijanci, a few kilometers of Valpovo the NE of Croatia. We recommend you to pay a visit to his collection of shells. Surprisingly, rev. Zuanović was born in continental part of Croatia, and his other hobbies include diving, singing, cooking and writing poetry. He has published a wonderful book entitled The World of Shells .
Franka Miriam Brueckler author of three math books published by Springer
Franka Miriam Brueckler, employed at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Zagreb, has published already three mathematical books with Springer Verlag, all of them in German langague. The first two deal with the History of Mathematics, while the third one, which appeared in 2019, is dedicated to mathematical foundations of chrystallography (for both mathematicians and natural scientists): Mathematische Grundlagen der Kristallographie fuer Matthematiker und Naturwissenschaftler . The last book has 207 pp, accompanied with more than 100 drawings and several tables. Congratulations to the author for her fine work!
Nenad, Who Plays Ping Pong
Nenad Bach is a world-class musician that decided to stop performing publicly after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2010. In the wake of his diagnosis he discovered that playing ping pong helped to alleviate his symptoms. Now he’s attempting to help millions of others do the same. Official Selection of 2020 Mountainfilm Festival. Featured on Directors Library, May 28th, 2020. Daily Short Pick on FilmShortage.com, May 27th, 2020.
Starlings Rhapsody in Siroki Brig in Bosnia and Herzegovina – lesson for Europe and more…
Starling, or čvorak in Croatian, provides us with surprising lessons of social tolerance and help. See a short video from Bosnia and Herzegovina, shot in the city of Široki Brig (or Široki Brijeg, i.e., Wide Hill), which is not far from Međugorje. The duration of this very educative video is 1 minute and 19 seconds. Incredible starlings show on large transmission line was captured in the village Dobrkovići. The name of the Dobrkovići village is funny: Till the Moustache!
Akiane Kramarik spirituality of painting
Akiane Kramarik: “…Realizing that nobody, except for my mother, cherished my work, I became more and more disillusioned. One time I threw my painting in the rain outside. And as it was landing into the puddle someone caught it. Just in time. It was my mother. Out of breath she shared something, ‘Last night I had a strange dream. I saw thousands of people waiting for your art. The line stretched all the way to the horizon.’ ” At the age of 4 she started dreaming about God, indicating that God inspired her to start painting and writing poetry about Him. She has dedicated her life to God and is focused on making the world a better place.
Miro Gavran Croatian writer translated in Paris and Hong Kong 2020
Miro Gavran is the greatest contemporary Croatian playwright, translated to as many as 40 languages worldwide. Miro Gavran: ‘The Paris edition of my drama is a continuation of my rich cooperation with French translators, I had five premiers in Paris, and I also had seven books published in that extraordinary city. Regarding the Chinese publication of my comedy The Doll , I see it as a great acknowledgement to my theatre writing. So far only my novel How We Broke Our Legs was published in Beijing, and now they can finally get to know me as a dramatist.”
Yoko Nishii between the Dobro Restaurant in Tokyo and Tokamachi
By the end of 2019, distinguished Japanese pianist Yoko Nishii has visited the city of Tokamachi, which is the seat of “Croatia – Japan Friendship House”, completed in 2012. Except for having the purpose of cultural center, it also serves for preparations of Croatian sportsmen for the forthcoming 2020 Summer Olympic Games to be organized in Tokyo. Yoko Nishii has visited Tokamach for completing the material for her newest CD, which will contain pianistic works of Rachmaninov. She was surround by a small team of professionals, because everything had to be registered under the best acoustic conditions.
Nenad Bach Searching for Boredom 2019
Triumphant 2019 ITTF Parkinson’s World Table Tennis Championships, which included 62 players, 12 countries, and 130 participants. A triumph of spirit. We play for history and the 10 million who could not play. Lots of traveling, flying around the globe, as the leitmotif of the year was Ping Pong Parkinson, music and sport as the challenge of living and working with Parkinson. I feel grateful and thankful to so many friends and acquaintances who help me along the way. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New 20, Happy Holidays. World Peace in One Hour, but most of all – Peace on Earth. Let’s achieve this sooner rather than later. We have everything we need, right now. Yours, Nenad Bach
Vladimir Novak: Croatians in America, fascinating photomonograph published in 2018
 Vladimir Novak (1928-2016)
Miro Gavran Croatian playwright has nine premieres in nine countries during two months of 2019
Miro Gavran is the greatest contemporary Croatian playwright. His plays have been translated into as many as 41 languages worldwide. During the following two months, from the end of August till October 2019, nine of his plays will be shown in nine countries: Germany, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Nigeria, in his native Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Turkey and in Czechia. About 1000 actors in Croatia and thoughout the world participated in his plays. He had about 1300 public literary appearances in Croatia and worldwide. He is a honorable member of the Russian Literary Society in Moscow.
Ping Pong Parkinson launched by Nenad Bach
We provide PPP (Ping Pong Parkinson) links related to numerous activities of Nenad Bach in order to launch the PPP International competition. The first such competition was organized in New York in 2019. This was an impetus not only for international PPP competitions, but also for founding national PPP competitions. Congratulations to Nenad for his forisghtedness and perserverance. The competition will for sure become a part of Paraolympic Games in the near future. Some countries have already decided to include PPP into their national sports prgrams.
Kinjo Gakuin high school from Japan visited High School Sesvete in Croatia in 2019
Japanese students and teachers arrived in Zagreb on March, 21st 2019. They were wellcomed by students and teachers from Gimnazija Sesvete at Franjo Tuđman airport. The program consisted of multimedial presentations and workshops which presented Gimnazija Sesvete, Croatian educational system, attractions, beauty and culture of Zagreb and Croatia. Japanese students from Nagoya also presented their school, city and talked about education in Japan. The main purpose of this event was promotion of music as a universal way of connecting people as well as promoting school choir singing.
Yoko Nishii speaking about Croatia at the Japanese TV in February 2019
Yoko Nishii, Japanese pianist and proponent of Croatian classical piano music in Japan, as well as of Japanese music in Croatia, was a guest of Japanese TV on 14th Febrary 2019. She described some of her numerous concerts in various Croatian cities (till 2018, she had as many as 48 soloist concerts in 24 cities, and innumerably many other appearances). She also described some of the cultural values of the country, as well as a little bit about Croatian cuisine. Yoko Nishii is fluent in Croatian language.
Nenad Bach International Newsletter No. 52: The Start of a New Year 2019
Dear All, the year 2018 was a productive and exciting year and 2019 which just started looks like even more exciting… and I hope as productive as well. Focus WORLD PEACE, promoting my idea of World Peace In One Hour through four Human Passions that connects us all. ART, SPORTS, GASTRONOMY and FASHION. These four passions unite us regardless of skin color, religion, education, status in society, personal wealth or political alliance. If you have a Parkinson’s diagnose and love Ping Pong, there will be the ITTF Parkinson’s World Table Tennis Championships from October 11-13 here in New York. If you play any of 500+ instruments and want to play for World Peace in One Hour in the orchestra that has ALL the instruments of the world, apply!