Ghost Bus (ters?)

While Caitlin was here we mostly just wandered around Dublin and went where the wind (or cute shops) took us. We thought about doing a lot of the touristy stuff but both of us were jet-lagged, and for different time zones too, and obviously not very good planners. However, the one activity that both of us were adamant about doing was the Dublin Ghost Bus tour. All we knew about the tour was that we took a bus at 8pm, and for two hours would be regaled with horror stories and ghost tales of Dublin with a live storyteller. Not knowing what to expect Caitlin and I decided that we would forgive one another if she pushed me in front out of fear or if I smacked her in the face for doing so. Just in case something jumped out or we saw something ghostly we practiced our scared faces. So, we get on the bus, which is decorated up inside with cobwebs and skeletons and the like. Pretty cute, we are funneled to the top half of the bus where there are dark curtains and red lighting.

Our tour guide comes up and starts playing some creepy music as he introduces the tour and our stops for the night. The curtains stay closed as we drive along and he tells us a number of stories. Our first stop (and when we can open the curtains to look out) is a University where someone named Dr. Clossy used to work as an anatomy professor back in the day (the day being like 1900 something?) apparently this professor, being a hardcore atheist would on the first day of class reveal a cadaver, slice it open, pull out the guts, hold them up Circle of Life style and pronounce "This, is what you are gentleman. And this, is all you will ever be." Our guide continued by telling us that at this point in history, each University in Ireland was allowed six cadavers a year, legally of course. Without refrigeration though, this was highly obnoxious for teaching medical students, thus the need for body snatchers also known as grave robbers. Shady people needing money would dig up and sell body after body to Dr. Clossy, the locals were terrified, because anyone you knew could end up on his table. Those who study and work in the building say that they have seen him in his blood stained lab coat wandering the halls, or have heard someone whistling his favorite tune when there should be no one else in the building. creepy, eh?

Our next stop was St. Kevin's Park where we heard about a priest who used to hold masses in this church in the middle of a graveyard when it was illegal to be a catholic, he was found out one sunday and tortured and then put to a horrible death. He is up for canonization and many people make a pilgrimage to this spot on his birthday where there have been a lot of reports of seeing his body levitating above the altar area covered in blood. After that our guide gave us a demonstration/lesson on how body snatchers did their job. He said if a body was in rigor mortis they would just put the persons arms over their shoulders and walk them to Dr. Clossy, as

everyone in Dublin would just think the person was drunk as a skunk.
After this we drove by a hotel with a room that is haunted by a little girl who died of TB and a graveyard where "The White Lady" is still heard crying at night for her long lost lover. The white lady was married to a very important man in dublin and died on their wedding night, she was buried (ALIVE!) and woke in her coffin as a body snatcher was trying to rob her of her wedding rings. Her husband refused to believe it was the wife he had buried who came knocking at his door and she died (for real) soon after. Our final stop is Dublin's most haunted place, The 40 Steps. These steps go alongside a church. This particular spot is haunted by someone I think called The Green Lady, she was a woman who owned a brothel, got pregnant by a prominent dubliner and hid the baby so he wouldn't kill it, she was then accused of being a witch because of this and was burned at the stake. In addition, this is the church where the leader of The Hell Fire Club (this club that used to burn themselves so they could smell burnt flesh as they thought they would in hell) decided to go to a priest for his penance, claimed he saw the devil walking toward him down the aisles of the church. RAN the hell out of there and never came back to the country of Ireland again.

And these are pictures of CREEPY FREAKIN SMOKE
that came out of nowhere. Literally, there was no fog, no smoke nothing and this showed up in my camera. Caitlin was sufficiently freaked out and I was insanely curious. I even took a picture of my breath in front of the camera for comparison and it looks different,

It's the last one. super weird!!! I love ghost stories.