Croatia Online - Split Library Book Promotion

Yesterday we were lucky enough to be invited to present our book – Croatia Cruising Companion – at the new Split library. This is a marvellous new facility for Split and it is staffed by a number of innovative and lovely people who couldn’t do enough to make the evening go professionally and with a swing. See our previous posting - Split's New Library – for a full report. Special thanks to Grozdana Ribičić and her team (Teo and Toma to name but two). The evening was chaired by Sandra Barčot who writes for More magazine, a monthly Croatian glossy about the sea. Mili Razović, President of the Split Tourist Board, then introduced the more formal part of the evening with a report on the importance of nautical tourism to Croatia and was followed by Joško Pilić, President of the Dalmatian Skippers Association and owner of Adriasail Charter (www.adriasailcharter.com) who, kindly enough, felt that every Croatian Charter Boat that had English speaking guests should have a copy of our book aboard. We then made a ten minute presentation of the book.

We asked Sanctus Domnio (see our earlier posting on Mandolins), an excellent local Mandolin orchestra, to provide background music and they very nearly stole the show with three lovely pieces that held our guests to their seats before they could adjourn to drinks and canapés in the adjacent room. They are off to Imotski today for an annual Mandolin competion which they have had frequent success in previously. Good luck to them this year.

Perhaps the visual highlight of the evening was Rosella Vujević’s fantastic cake, pictured, which as well as being intricately detailed also tasted very good as well.

Thanks also to Ivica Buble of Dalmatia Charter, http://www.dalmatiacharter.com/ for his early support of the book and connecting us with Joško Pilić, Nigel Turnbull, http://www.sailingschoolcroatia.com/, for standing in as Croatia Online’s photographer, Mladen Vušcović for taking the video footage, Keko and family for their much appreciated ongoing support and, particularly, to Ana Brničević of Korenat Point, http://www.korenatpoint.com/, who, in her spare time, provided much of the impetus, encouragement and practical assistance needed to make it all happen.

Thanks also to all those that forwent the European Cup Final and the eve of a Croatian Bank holiday to attend, some of whom travelled a long way to do so. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get a complete list of those that attended so apologies for exclusions but below are the websites of just a few of our guests. Anyone reading this who has not been included and would like to be, please send us a comment and we will amend the posting.

Sailing Schools and Charter Companies
http://www.adriasailcharter.com/ – based in Split Marina
http://www.dalmatiacharter.com/ – based in Trogir
http://www.sailingschoolcroatia.com/ – based in Kaštela Marina
http://www.hiddencroatia.com/sailing/ - Sail Croatia based in Kaštela Marina


Marinas and Associated Companies
http://www.marinakastela.com/ – Kaštela Marina, near Split airport
www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien - Le Meridien’s new hotel and marina near Split
http://www.marinafacilitysolutions.com/ - marina equipment suppliers and marina advisors based in Kaštela Marina
http://www.ncp.hr/ – Šibenik’s rapidly expanding marina
http://www.marinapreko.com/ – the new marina on Ugljan Island

Tourist Boards
http://www.dalmatia.hr/ – Split County Tourist Board
http://www.tzosbarzup.hr/ – Osijek County Tourist Board

Travel Agencies
http://www.atlastrogir.hr/
http://www.falco-tours.com/
http://www.lifejacketadventures.com/

Hotels
www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/destinations/map.html - Le Meridien Grand Hotel Lav, Podstrana, near Split
http://www.hotelglobo.com/ – Hotel Globo in the centre of Split

We’ll be reporting in more detail on the nautical points raised during the event on our sister site http://www.croatiacruisingcompanion.blogspot.com/