On
31st of December 2014,
we left for Sigulda, an hour by train from the Riga city centre.Sigulda is
known as one of the tourist destination in Latvia. Since we booked the hotel at
the last moment we couldn’t get nearby hotel. When we reached there only we
knew that the hostel we booked was on the other side of the valley. We had to
go by cable car because we were tired of searching for hostel in the wrong
place for about three hours.
We
met some tourist from Lithuania in cable car and we thought that they were
going to stay in the same hostel we booked. The hostel looked like a museum or
a big mansion. We met one lady who takes care of the hostel. She was very
polite and gave us the main door key. It was a big mansion and she told us to
lock the hostel when we sleep since we were the only guest that night. I
began to have a creepy feeling. The mansion was so big and bit old. She gave us
the key of the main door which worked at first. But when we tried again it did
not work. Then she gave us the side door key and showed us the way. The
elevator worked very slowly and the light was also dim. After showing the side
door she left for her home since it was New Year eve. So in the big mansion
there were only four of us.
I
started to think about all those horror movies I have watched. One of my
friend said that it was all set up. He pointed out how the main door key did
not work, the slow elevator which may stop working at any time, the lady who
was very polite and the creepy feeling. The silence of the mansion screamed at
us. There were paintings hung on the wall and one of the paintings has a
girl. I could not look at her as I felt like the painting was holding something
inside and if I look at her that thing may come out at anytime. I was literally
holding my breath.
After
having dinner in one of the nearby restaurant we headed back to hostel. I
wished more than anything to go back to Riga but cable car was not in operation
until the next day. The sight of the mansion in the darkness sent chill down my
spine. But I didn’t have any other choice and feared what might happen tonight.
After taking a quick nap, one of my friends suggested to explore the mansion. I
was against the idea but I was also scared to be left alone in the room. So we
headed to the second floor. It was totally dark. We didn’t have torch, except
the flash light from our cell phone and one of my friend started making video
telling us that if something happens to us, people will get the evidence. I
didn’t say anything as I was too scared. I followed them and as one of them put
on the light, the light started flickering. One of them said that it was scary.
By that time I was drenched with fear, I could feel my heart beating so fast.
There was television in the hall way and when we tried to put on it did not
show anything except some blur stuff. After sometime it showed some channel
telecasting movie in Latvian.one of my friend said that camera was not working
and something was really wrong with the place adding fuel to the fire.
But it worked again after sometime. After exploring second floor one of them
suggested to go to third floor. I pleaded them to explore in the morning and
they agreed.
We
had brought some wine to celebrate the New Year. I drank thinking that sleep
would betray me that night and also I wanted to celebrate New Year. But I could
take only few sips since I did not like it. We watched fireworks at night and
roamed around in woods. I don’t know if it was because of the wine or because
of the weary day, I did get a very good sleep in the creepy beautiful
mansion. And when I woke up in the morning, I learned that
the mansion was a hospital before and one of my friend assumed that where we stayed
might be psychiatric ward since we could see beautiful scene from there. Thank
god I didn’t know about that before. In the morning the fear was gone and
mansion started to look beautiful and the painting also didn’t scare me. So
maybe I am scared of the darkness. The day turned out to be an awesome one with
the walk in snow and beautiful places in Sigulda.
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| Sight of hostel at night |
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| Painting i couldnot look at night |
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| hostel |
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| Gutmana cave |
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| Chimi's snow man |
