Dragons in Ljubljana and Zagreb

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Dragon Chasing
We seem to be chasing dragons on our trip through Europe! The founder of Ljubljana was the Greek prince Jason who came to the area with the Argonauts. Jason, who had stolen the Golden Fleece, encountered a terrible dragon in the area, which he fought and slew. THe Ljubljana dragon now has a permanent abode on top of the castle tower on the coat-of-arms! After WW2 Ljubljana became the capital of Slovenia, one of the six republics of the socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Dragon Bridge
This famous bridge which spans the Ljubljanica River has four dragons which guard the entry into the city. It is probably the most photographed area in Ljubljana! We certainly took lots of photos; the first day in the sun and the second day in the snow! The bridge was built in 1901.

Hostel Celica
We spent two nights in this hostel which used to be a prison. The first night was spent in a 12-bed dorm and we felt like we were in a prison as there was virtually no space between the beds. My bed was squeezed in between two guys I never even got to meet! One was asleep when I arrived and the other came to bed at about 2am!! The second night we moved into an actual cell where we were much more comfortable in our luxurious cell despite the bars on the window and door!

Snow
We had heavy snow at Villach, the border, on our way to Slovenia where our train was delayed 100 minutes. It was fun trudging through the snow to find a place to have a snack while we waited. We had snow again on our second day in Ljubljana and Colin and Michael enjoyed a snowball fight until one of Colin's snowballs accidentally hit a lady passing by! She took it in good form, thankfully!

The Castle
Excavations show that the castle at the top of the hill was once inhabited by the Celts and Illyrians, and the Romans had a military post there. The Medieval Castle goes back to the 9th century, although the first mention of it was in 1144. There was a great view from the top but hard to capture as the lighting was not so good. We climbed right to the top of the tower. It was bitterly cold up there but this was quickly remedied after a delicious Slovenian meal of goulash and dumplings at a great little restaurant called 'Six'.

Zagreb
Our next stop was Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and with the help of a locally-written tourist guide we enjoyed the write-ups as much as the sites! One park we thought we must not miss was the Square of N S Zrinjskog; the description of which read,' The combination of the lawns, flowers, trees, fountains and statues make this sucker a brilliant place to take a load off. You'll be thrilled to see that it is also a make-out point, local lovers show off their most complex and passionate manoeuvres free of charge in this baby." I think we were glad that we didn't see any action here!

Main Square
The Statue of Ban (Count) Jelacic dominates this square. He was one of the early heroes but in 1947 his statue was taken down and dismantled as it was thought to be overly representative of Nationalism, and the squre was renamed Republic Square. Then in 1990 it was re-erected in the Square which resumed its original name. People like to meet 'under the tail of the Ban's horse'. Shades of Prague but this time we didn't have anyone to meet!

Mandusevac Well
The site of this wishing well, in the main square, was first mentioned in the 16th century. The well was used as the source of water supply for the town until 1878. Legend has it that the ancient Mandusevac was named after 'Manda', a young girl who one day offered water to the members of the royal entourage. A soldier called out, "Manda, duso, zagrebi", (Scoop it up, Manda darling). Zagrebi became Zagreb, the name of the city.

Stone Gate
The Stone Gate was another interesting site we visited. This entrance into the town is one of the four original entries from the feudal period. In 1731 a terrible fire destroyed much of the town and legend has it that a vision of the Virgin Mary could be seen in the burnt ash that remained in this entry-way. It was reconstructed in 1760, and hasn't been touched since. There is a little walk-through chapel, with ladies praying in the pews, and many people lighting candles. It was like stepping back hundreds of years to one of the first rustic chapels set into the city wall/gate.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Machines
We enjoyed wandering through a display of Da Vinci's machines at one of the museums, before taking a five and a half hour train on to Budapest. We shared a compartment with an Englishman, who was lecturing on Philosophy at one of the universities in Budapest. We have met so many interesting people in the hostels and on public transport - we would definitely recommend that form of accommodation and transport.

Coming up next... Budapest!

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