Medvedgrad

Another day trip was to Medvedgrad. Not exactly far from Zagreb, the town is easily accessed by a quick bus ride and maybe 20 minutes of hiking. It is placed on the mountain that towers over Zagreb called Medvednica. Medvegrad (built in the 1250’s) was used as a castle to protect the kings and queens of Croatia during the middle ages. One popular story, orated to me by Ivana is of Queen Jelena (Yelena). During her reign the Turks were attacking Zagreb and legend says that in order to save Zagreb she sold her soul to the Devil. The only way for her to regain her soul was to have a suitor who could run around the castle three times while carrying a precious treasure. The catch was that the treasure was heavy, and surrounding the castle was birds, not unlike the one in Hitchcock’s movie. And no one could out run the birds for more than one lap. Everyone who tried died and eventually no one tried any more and Jelena died a slave to the Devil.

Medvegrad had a little café, in which we decided to sit for a bit. We walked in and Ivana started to order tea, but the waiter insisted that she wanted Mulled wine, and in a snap we both changed our minds and decided to have that. He was a charming man with short statue, but huge shoes and walked around as if the owner of everything he saw. When a father and his two sons walked in he asked them what they wanted, they looked at the menus confused and he said “You want apple juice, the apple juice is good” and they looked at him, like in a trance and said “Do you have apple juice? We’ll have that.” He did the same to get them pancakes, and we were so mesmerized we also had pancakes. And the couple next to us also decided to get pancakes.

We finished our meal, hiked back down and prepared for out next day to Hrvatsko Zagorje.

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Part of trip: Europe Trip 2

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