I’m really not ashamed to admit that I’m extremely easily frightened and hate horror movies but when Iva invited me to one of her tours, I thought “Well there are going to be 10 more people there, I’ll just use one of them as a human shield against demons.”
Wrong.
As any respectable scary book introduction would tell you, it was a dark and rainy Friday night in Zagreb. I went to meet Iva next to the Stone Gate and, being the bad luck Murphy ’s Law kind of gal that I am, there were no human shields for me to hide behind. “Fine”, I thought unconvincingly “it’s just a coincidence that it’s cold, windy, rainy and that not a single person showed up for the tour except for me, it's not ominous at all.”
So, Iva and I waited, and when no one showed up, I got an exclusive individual tour of the Upper City, which made things way scarier, but also way more amazing.
I wandered the dark and eerily empty streets with Iva, dressed in black, with a cape and carrying a lantern, and it was one of the best experiences ever, even for a huge coward like me.
Sure, there were creepy cats staring at us from windows and strange sounds coming from abandoned houses, but I kept my cool (poorly, may I add).
Sometimes I think it’s a shame that the potential of the Upper City is not used and there aren’t really that many places to go to at night, but now that I’ve seen this tour, I feel that this is precisely what its streets were made for.
Back to my poor cool keeping, we walked through the dark streets and it was all good, despite the occasional chill down my spine when a particularly nasty demon was mentioned. All good, that is, until we reached a cemetery and my aforementioned cool started to scream wanting to get away as soon as possible. Imagine my surprise (probably Iva’s too) when I didn’t actually do it, but soldiered on and stood at a dark cemetery while it was raining and the wind was howling, for what seemed like forever (but was probably more like 7 minutes).
An hour and a half passed in a jiff and we were back to the Stone Gate, hopefully not possessed by any demons and witches, but only time will tell. If I start crawling on ceilings, you know who to blame.
I’d love to tell you more, but Iva’s way better at it than me, so visit Secret Zagreb website or their Facebook page, book a tour, and hear the best kept secrets about ghosts, dragons and other unimaginable horrors hiding around the corners of the innocent-looking Upper City.
