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In the spirit of the season I give you the creepiest places on earth!

Oct 28th 2007Karen Rose
Karen RoseWhen Goddesses Fall To Earth

Halloween is but a few days away.  I was clicking around Yahoo and saw that ”Saw 4″ was the biggest boxoffice draw this weekend.  (For the record, ew.)  But then I saw an article on the 13 creepiest places on earth.  A few of them were indeed creepy, the creepiest being Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh.  I’ve been to Edinburgh and have been down in some of the underground tunnels on “Ghost Walks,” but Mary King’s Close opened in 2003, after my last UK trip, so I’ve never been here.  

marykingcloseedinburgh.jpgThis was an area where families abandoned victims of the plague in the 17th century.  “Abandoned” is actually a santized description.  They shoved them down there and left them to die, then sealed it.  I stopped to think about this - the horror of being the abandoned, knowing certain death awaited.  And the torment of being the families above ground, having to go on living with what you’d done.  That is creepy, people.  Still shivering!

I’ve travelled a lot and seen many cool things, including some pretty creepy places - here are a couple for your ghoulish pleasure:

1) Hallstadt, Austria - The Charnel House:  charnelhouseaustria.jpgHallstadt is this gorgeous town on a mountain lake in the Alps.  Apparently they didn’t have a lot of burial ground, so people could only occupy their grave for 12 years.  After 12 years, they were dug up and their skulls decorated with their names, the date of their death, and some pretty vines or something and stuck in this little house.  Surreal, for sure.  And totally DH’s idea to go.  I peeked through my fingers the whole time.

2) Ottobeuren Abbey, Germany: Now, this is one heck of a gorgeous building.  Built in the Rococo style, its interior must be seen to be appreciated.  However, inside, up at the front of the church, are several glass cases - with reclining dead popes inside.  I am not kidding.  I’m not sure whose idea it was to put them there, but they’re there, in all their skeletal glory, lying lounging on their side, propped up on their elbow, bones wired together, still dressed in their papal finery and grinning evilly.  Ew.  DH thought this was the coolest thing he’d ever seen.  Ew.  Can you imagine worshipping there every week?  It’s still a working church, so people must.  Still… Ew.  Creepy.

3) Rothenburg, Germany - The Medieval Crime Museum:  This has all kinds of medieval punishment (and torture) devices.  torturechairrothenburg.jpgEverything from masks for nagging women to a chair of nails and an Iron Maiden.  If you’ve read DIE FOR ME, now you know where “Simon” got his inspiration.  Bwahahahaha.  And no, I’m not a cruel and mean person.  I didn’t even want to go to this museum, it was all all DH’s idea.  die-for-me-25.jpgBut once in there, the images lingered for many years, waiting for the evil Simon (DIE FOR ME’s villain) to come along and voila! (Shameless plug.  So sue me.)

 And not to put all the creepiness in Europe…

4) My Orlando hotel room last weekend.  After standing in line for 30+ minutes to check in, DH, and the kids and I wanted to get to Disney to attend Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party.  But we were locked in the room!!  Ack!  Even DH with all his manly muscles could not open the door.  I kept my cool, kind of, and called the front desk.  “We’re trapped!”  They had to let us out from the outside and replace the doorknob.  Totally creepy, people.

5) Honorable mention goes to my 17-year-old’s bedroom.  Ew.

So what’s the creepiest place you’ve ever been?  Tell all, in the spirit of Halloween! Bwahahahahahaha!

45 Comments »

45 Responses to “In the spirit of the season I give you the creepiest places on earth!”

  1. Kasey on 29 Oct 2007 at 12:52 am #

    Okay - I haven’t been to that many creepy places. However in junior high they took us on a tour of the Wabasha caves in the Twin Cities. Apparently this cave that was made into a club, was a popular spot for gangsters back in the 1920’s. After a pocker game there was a massacre and by the time the police made it there everything was cleaned up but you can still see the bullet holes in the fire place. Workers and guests have reported seeing men in 1920’s pinstripe suits and even starring back at them in the bathroom mirror. Others have heard a band playing in the caves too. I didn’t see anything there but it was still kind of creepy especially when they took you in the back caves behind the restuarant.

    I had a friend who said that she and her roommates saw and image of a legless man in their apartment a few times. We were going to try a oiuji board, but we couldn’t find one and then after that we chickened out.

  2. Karen Rose on 29 Oct 2007 at 6:04 am #

    Kasey - I find caves of any kind naturally creepy, especially if there is any abject darkness involved. And a place where bullet holes still riddle the walls is a very visual reminder of the violence that happened inside. Sounds very interesting and very creepy.

  3. Lisa H on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:13 am #

    I am not a fan of scary places, but as a kid, I think I liked them okay. The creepiest place I can think of is the Wax Museum in Niagara Falls. I don’t remember the name, but it did have torture devices and wax manequins appearing to be tortured. I remember a particular gruesome torture device that looked like a huge (4 foot long) saw that was suspended in the air. The victim was to lay down on the table, and the saw was swung from side to side, sawing the person in half!

    I actually believe this is the way the apostle Paul was martyred.

    Horrible!

    Karen I agree with you about Mary King’s Close. That is horrible! It is amazing how brutal people were only 100-200 years ago!

  4. Caren Crane on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:16 am #

    Cool post, Karen! I am the world’s biggest chicken, but love to read about the creepy stuff. As to actually visiting…maybe I would, but only during the day and NOT on the creepy ghost tours. Although, my husband and I are visiting Charleston soon, which I understand is quite “active” with lots of trapped energy. Maybe I’ll buck up and go on one of those tours, after all.

    In an odd case of synchronicity, my Ghost Hunter friend Nikki is blogging today about her paranormal investigations on Romance Bandits. If anyone wants to hear more creepy stories about creepy places, please come by! ;-)

  5. Gannon on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:37 am #

    Karen, I read that same list, too. Pretty creepy.

    When I went to Edinburgh a few years ago, I didn’t get to Mary King’s Close, but my sister and I did take the City of the Dead tour to the Covenanters’ Prison inside Greyfriars Kirkyard. Let me just say that walking through a cemetery at night with only our guide’s flashlight was scary enough–it was so friggin’ dark I’m surprised no one tripped on a headstone and broke a leg! This particular tour company is the only one with keys to the gates of the Covenanters’ Prison. Over the years, there has been numerous cases of poltergeist activity in the Black Mausoleum (supposedly by the MacKenzie ghost).

    We were crammed in this mausoleum with about 20 people, but nothing happened that night. But in the past, people have been scratched, shoved, and some have fainted. Secretly, my sister and I wanted something to happen. Is that sick or what? We took some pictures afterward and on one that my sister took just outside the mausoleum…

  6. Ellen on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:37 am #

    For years I would cross the street to avoid a specific sewer in our neighborhood. There was a woman who drowned a sack of kittens in that sewer and I was positively scarred by it. I remember the boys poking a stick at the sack to free the kitten bodies, but it was too late. Nowadays, they’d arrest that old witch.

  7. twolilhahas on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:38 am #

    Um, the creepiest place I’ve ever been is Ripley’s Believe It or Not. lol And figuring I found that as creepy as I did, I’m never going hunting for anything really creepy. I’m a big chicken. My yard is creepy to me at 5 in the morning. lol I don’t need to see truly scary stuff or my world would stop functioning…I’d never come out from under the covers.

  8. Gannon on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:39 am #

    (Continued)…there was some sort of weird orb! Cool, huh? One of these days, we want to go back and do it again. Maybe midnight on Halloween! Bwahahaha!

  9. Ellen on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:41 am #

    Lisa H…My college roommate lost her virginity in the Wax Museum at Niagara. I kid you not. Talk about scary!

  10. Karen Rose on 29 Oct 2007 at 7:48 am #

    Gannon - I did the Ghost Walk tour in Edinburgh. It was done tongue-in-cheek - verrrry cute and funny. Plus, it was early July and it didn’t get dark till 11:30 pm, which was weird. A Ghost Walk when it’s still daylight-ish isn’t so scary. Our hostess was a drama student at the local university and I had a ball. She laid on the brogue very thickly, LOL.

    Twolil - my yard is creepy at 5am. I have it on good authority (DH) that snakes live in my yard. As I live in FL and the yard is rather junglish (in a good way), I don’t think the tales of snakes are exaggerated. So when I go out at night I loudly proclaim, “Snakes, I’m coming! Run! Slither for your lives!” hoping that the old adage that they’re more afraid of me than I am of them is true. But that is not possible as I’m very afraid of them. I stick to the sidewalk when I must go outside at night!

    Ellen, that’s horrible! Both things.

  11. twolilhahas on 29 Oct 2007 at 8:01 am #

    Oh Karen, I almost stepped on a snake one night. I was coming home late and the grass was high (I live in FL, too) and I stepped down and a snake shot out away from me (right in front of me). That stopped my heart for a second. We have them around here all the time. They travel in pairs. The oak snakes do anyway. We had two sets for a while…they like to steal our chickens’ eggs.

  12. cail on 29 Oct 2007 at 8:18 am #

    i love the ghost stuff! anywhere that is old and has a ghost tour, is a good vacation destination for me. as a firm believer of ghosts (my great grandfather’s image came and said goodnight to me the night he died, i kid you not- few things are more terrifying for a 9 yr old then telling daddy that greatgrandpa said goodnight to her last night, then hearing that he died in the middle of the night), i really love visiting places that have hauntings.

    sometimes the stories are tragic and sad, others just flat out horrific. i LOVE the TV programs that are on this time of year. especially on the history and travel channels.

  13. Karen Hawkins on 29 Oct 2007 at 8:24 am #

    Savannah. I looove that city but it always gives me the shivers. The huge oaks and their Spanish moss throw dark shadows over old, ghosty houses and more than their fair share of tombstones. I did the ghost tour and it was soooo eerie!

    And yes, any time someone might step on a snake, or does step on a snake, or thinks about stepping on a snake — that’s a scary place, too. VERY.

  14. doglady on 29 Oct 2007 at 8:44 am #

    Hmmm. I work at Wal-Mart. That is the scariest place on earth!! Have you seen what people WEAR to Wal-Mart. SHUDDER!!! The horror, the horror. I camped out at Loch Ness with a group of easily spooked musicians. Didn’t see anything, but heard a lot of weird noises. Stonehenge at night is very creepy! Savannah at night is very eerie, Karen H. You are absolutely right. Bran Castle in Romania is creepy in the extreme. I lived in a haunted house in England as a child, but it wasn’t really scary. Things happened that made you jump from time to time. My youngest brother was 3 and for some reason he could see the ghost and we could not. He kept talking about his friend, John. We thought it was his imaginary friend until we went to our landlords for tea. My brother pointed to a picture on the sideboard and said “That’s John.” It was a picture of our landlord’s dead brother. He died twenty years before in OUR house.

  15. twolilhahas on 29 Oct 2007 at 8:48 am #

    It’s not creepy at all, but I love going to the Olustee Battlefield. You can almost feel the past surround you, but it isn’t scary, just a little melancholy. It’s very cool. Of course, it may just be me focusing on the past when I’m there, but I love anything Civil War and just knowing that we’re walking around where they actually camped and wrote their letters home and stuff really makes me think about the soldiers and their lives.

  16. Julia London on 29 Oct 2007 at 9:20 am #

    I am a woman who avoids creepy places if she can help it. I am happy to report I have not been to any of those creepy places and can’t think of anything that’s so creepy its worth noting. Except Walmart. Doglady is on to something there!

    I went on a ghost tour of New Orleans once. It was so uncreepy as to be a total waste of time. I could have gone to the hotel’s sauna for that.

  17. SuzyQ on 29 Oct 2007 at 9:31 am #

    Julia – I’ve done the haunted history tour in New Orleans too but had a good time. I love the ghost tours and have been on quite a few. But the place that creeps me out the most was my friend’s house when I was growing up. They had seen relatives in their house (yes, they were already dead) and had all sorts of noises going on. I remember always getting that feeling that you were not alone whenever I went to the bathroom – which was on the second floor down a long hallway. I hated going up there by myself. Although I never saw anything in the house, we did hear footsteps many times.

  18. Sabrina Jeffries on 29 Oct 2007 at 9:41 am #

    I’ve been to two creepy places. One was Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London, when I was about 12. The “Chamber of Horrors” was so creepy that I actually put it in a book (Dangerous Lord, and yes, believe it or not, the exhibit was around then). Wax museums in general creep me out. I think it must be a holdover from when I was a kid and was afraid of any kind of mask (I refused to go trick or treating until I was 7 or 8 years old, and by then, we lived in Thailand, and there was nowhere to trick or treat).

  19. Sabrina Jeffries on 29 Oct 2007 at 9:45 am #

    The second creepy place was the Har Par Villa (Tiger Balm Gardens) in Singapore. Here’s a description from the Uniquely Singapore website:

    “Twenty-five clusters of original statues and figurines replicate Chinese mythology characters like the Laughing Buddha and the Fu Lu Shou (Taoist deities). A must-see exhibit is the Ten Courts of Hell, featuring the ten steps of judgement before reincarnation. Literal and leaving nothing to the imagination, the statues and sets immortalise moral values and Chinese cultural heritage for generations to come.”

    We’re talking graphic, in-color representations of people being tortured in hell. It’s definitely unique. And shudder-worthy.

    Incidentally, I still use Tiger Balm from time to time. In Asia, it’s quite popular as an ointment.

  20. Karen Rose on 29 Oct 2007 at 9:48 am #

    Sabrina - I’ve never liked masks either, but I really dislike wearing them. Makes me feel like I’m being suffocated and that little slit they’d put in the mouth area wasn’t nearly big enough.

    **SPOILER ALERT** I’m thinking about an old Twilight Zone episode with this rich old man whose called his family to what he knows is his deathbed. They are a loveless, mercenary, selfish lot and he tells them the terms of their inheiritance is that they wear these horrible ghoulish masks until midnight. Of course they’re magical, evil masks. At one minute past midnight, they victoriously remove their masks only to find their faces now look like the hideous masks. And the old man is now dead, content in death that he’s had justice at last.

    Creeped me out as a kid. Masks are just not the same. And we don’t even want to go into what Dr. Fibes (Vicent Price) did with masks.

  21. Karen Rose on 29 Oct 2007 at 9:51 am #

    Sabrina, I use Tiger Balm too - I had no idea of its origins. Now that place sounds utterly, amazingly cool!

    I think wax museums are also creepy - I always wonder if there are any real people under that wax, ala Vincent Price. I’m going to Madame Toussad’s in NYC in a few weeks and I guarantee I will be creeped out!

  22. claudia dain on 29 Oct 2007 at 9:56 am #

    KAREN! I remember that Twilight Zone episode vividly! I was never a fan of masks before, but after seeing that show, no masks EVER.

    I have to say that the creepiest place ever has to be a teen-aged boy’s bedroom. Sorry people, but a graveyard at midnight has nothing on what you find at the bottom of a 18 year old kid’s closet!

  23. SuzyQ on 29 Oct 2007 at 10:02 am #

    I remember that episode too! Twilight Zone is one of my favs.

  24. Gannon on 29 Oct 2007 at 10:03 am #

    Doglady, LOL about the people at Wal-Mart. You are so right!

    I love the story about the ghost in your house that your brother could see–very cool and a little freaky at the same time.

    We almost went to Romania when we were living in Italy, but the trip never came together. My oldest son (now 15) desperately wanted to go to Bran Castle. I understand it has a very high creepy quotient!

  25. Gannon on 29 Oct 2007 at 10:04 am #

    Doglady, LOL about the people at Wal-Mart. You are so right!

    I love the story about the ghost in your house that your brother could see–very cool and a little freaky at the same time.

    We almost went to Romania when we were living in Italy, but the trip never came together. My oldest son (now 15) desperately wanted to go to Bran Castle. I’ve heard it has a very high creepy quotient.

  26. Julia London on 29 Oct 2007 at 10:05 am #

    Oh, hey, if we are talking Twilight Zone — there are several that creeped me out! The one where the man and woman wake up from a bender and try to get on a train that goes nowhere. CREEPY.

    SuzyQ, I’m not sure which one I was on, but it was so anti-climatic, and the group that came along was a bunch of drunk fraternity guys. Not fun.

  27. Gannon on 29 Oct 2007 at 10:05 am #

    Oops! Accidentally posted twice!

  28. Sherri Browning Erwin on 29 Oct 2007 at 10:39 am #

    Karen R, tell me you got to the party! How about those fireworks? Amazing! That’s a good place to be for Halloween. Usually not so creepy.

    Julia, hahaa! New Orleans Ghost Tour– the guide was totally creepy. Come on! You remember the long greasy hair, the Lestat wannabe vibe, the fact that he came up to your kneecaps. Ew! I’m creeped out now.

  29. Lisa H on 29 Oct 2007 at 11:45 am #

    Boy Ellen—what a place to “loose it”!

    Talk about being scarred for life.

    “Sorry honey, I can’t get it up unless I’m looking at a severed head or something”

    “If you don’t get it up, we can arrange that!”

    HE HE HE

  30. Lisa H on 29 Oct 2007 at 11:47 am #

    I have to agree about a son’s bedroom being pretty scarry. My son often has half eaten things under his bed from like 10 months ago! Yech! Luckily, this is one thing my husband does for me, he gets suited up and goes in there every so often with a couple Hefty bags and usually emerges unscathed.

  31. Karen Rose on 29 Oct 2007 at 1:22 pm #

    Claudia, LOL - that’s why my daughter’s room got honorable mention!

    Sherri - yes I did make it to the Disney Halloween party!!! It was AWESOME!!!! The fireworks were the best I’d ever seen and the parade was so good we watched it twice. Even DH, who despises choreographed dancing in parades, loved it! My favorite was the grave digger dancers. They all were wearing tuxes, zombie makeup and did a dance with shovels. AMAZING!!!

    I liked it. Can you tell?

    The Twi Zone that creeped me out the most was the one with the guy from the planet Venus who hid a third eye under his soda jerk hat. Spooky. And there is no better example of classic TV than: “TO SERVE MAN — it’s a COOKBOOK!”

    Love it!

  32. Sabrina Jeffries on 29 Oct 2007 at 1:41 pm #

    BTW, my friend (and sometime frequenter of the Goddess Blogs) Caren Crane is over at Romance Bandits interviewing a ghost hunter. Talk about creepy places! She has some doozies. It’s very interesting, if you want to check it out: http://romancebandits.blogspot.com

    Brrrr!

  33. Sabrina Jeffries on 29 Oct 2007 at 1:42 pm #

    I’m a fan of Twilight Zone myself, Karen! I think I’ve seen all the ones you’ve mentioned, except I don’t remember the one about the masks. Now I wonder if I saw it as a child and that was what freaked me out. Hmmm.

  34. twolilhahas on 29 Oct 2007 at 1:47 pm #

    Ooooh yeah, the dungeon at the castle/fort in St. Augustine. You have to crawl through a tiny hole in the wall to get in there. That was creepy because you know going in it was a real life dungeon and you have to wonder what may have went down in there in times past.

  35. Kay on 29 Oct 2007 at 2:23 pm #

    Karen, my oldest child’s room is in the competition for Creepiest Place. LOL

    The creepiest place I have ever been is the local INS office, to get my oldest son’s naturalization paperwork. It was the filthiest public space I had ever been in (cleand last in the Johnson administration, I think), staffed by the most awful people (imagine Frankestein’s assistant in drag). The only bright part was the other people in the waiting area, which was small and extended out the door & down the hall (the hall being MUCH cleaner than the waiting area). Everyone waiting was clean, well dressed and polite.

    The staff mangled everyone’s name, so many people went up each time a name was called, just in case. Sometimes, a person would wait ver an hour (for an assigned time!) to be told, “Oh, you were called 30 min ago. (Name mangled and unregonizable to owner of said name) You can come back for our next opening—in three months.

    I lost it at that point! cont….

  36. Kay on 29 Oct 2007 at 2:32 pm #

    cont….
    I threw a not-so-quiet fit on behalf of the gentleman in question, and they took him in next. It should come as no surprise that I was called over an hour after my time for the appointment, our paper work was LOST!!!!! We were told to come back in three months.

    I waited and insisted that they rebuild the file then and there. I was not leaving the inner sanctum to rejoing the throngs in the waiting area while they did this. I had originals of all of the necessary paperwork, including an extra photograph. HA. Got them on that! Our file was amazingly discovered, intact, in another office in about 5 minutes. LOL

    Did I mention that the walls of the office and waiting area were “decorated” with posters of the boarder patrol–”Keeping America save From Invaders” and Immigration and Naturalization rules and procedures–in 10 point type ,dirty and torn. WELCOME TO THE USA. This was all pre 9/11 folks, I can’t imagine what it’s like now.

  37. twolilhahas on 29 Oct 2007 at 2:45 pm #

    OMG, Kay, that sounds like a nightmare. Good for you standing up for yourself and others!

  38. Bumblebee on 29 Oct 2007 at 2:46 pm #

    How cool!
    My new favorite “creepy” place is the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, MA. It was just reviewed on Ghost Hunters last week, but the spook squad found test results to be inconclusive. I went to their yearly Costume Ball on Sat. night, and it was the best Halloween party that I have ever been to! Super icky decor, a great band, and amazing costumes. I went as an Amy Brown Fairy, and my DH as a Highlander (he’s got the legs, hubba hubba). I didn’t see any actual ghost activity, but with so many undead-looking folk celebrating that night- who kows, maybe one of them was not really among the living!

    -Emmiebee

  39. dbrown3400 on 29 Oct 2007 at 2:52 pm #

    We had a haunted house in Tulsa. It used to be a shelter for homeless men but was quite deserted when we found our way in as teenagers. I’ll never tell how we got in but once we did we were scared to bits. There were ghostly sounds, creaky floors and the scurry of tiny creatures. The creatures sounded much larger than they probably were. But most of our fright came from the fact that we weren’t supposed to be in there. Everytime a car went by, we panicked. Some kids did get busted there but this was before drugs hit our city and the kids were drunk on beer.

    I’m not confessing to any beer consumption on the part of me or my friends but we were scared spitless in that house.

  40. Sabrina Jeffries on 29 Oct 2007 at 4:40 pm #

    Oops! Didn’t realize Caren had already mentioned the ghost hunter. I swear, sometimes I’M scary in my cluelessness.

  41. Karen Rose on 29 Oct 2007 at 5:44 pm #

    Blame it on Halloween, Sabrina!

    Kay, government agencies can be terrifying. So, Emmiebee - your DH is a teacher with legs nice enough to show off in a Highlander costume - he sounds like a real keeper :-)

    Donna, I noted there was no outright declaration of beer related innocence … Hmmm….

  42. Nicole Jordan on 29 Oct 2007 at 6:05 pm #

    Ooooowwwweee… all this stuff is giving me chills!! Shiver, shudder. I’ve been to Rothenburg but not the other places in your blog, KarenR. But those take the cake for creepy. And I can see why you’re making a name for yourself for really scary suspense!

  43. Karen Rose on 29 Oct 2007 at 6:15 pm #

    Bwahahahaha… Thanks, Nicole :-)

  44. evlqn on 30 Oct 2007 at 1:45 am #

    I have lived in several haunted or “otherwise occupied” houses over the years. We had a Victorian lady that would rock my eldest sons cradle when he was fussy.
    The house we live in now is one. We have a friend who says it is the I-5 of the spirit world, we have people passing through all the time. They occasionally show up as orbs in photographs. One day I was looking in the playroom door and felt hands on my shoulder and rear-end. my first thought was “Is Susanna grabbing my ass?” When I turned around I was alone in the hallway.
    But my favorite “otherwise occupied ” place is my youngest sons’ house in Portland, Oregon. They had a Halloween party there one year and several people who where not there showed up in photos. The chandelier that had been removed from the foyer several years before was in the pictures. It has a wonderful old Speakeasy in the cellar.

  45. Silke on 30 Oct 2007 at 11:27 am #

    I hope when you were in Rothenburg you had a “Snowball” after getting yourself creeped out. :)