Note: Despite its amazingly realistic appearance, this is NOT the Hoia-Bacui Forest. This is my daughter’s bedroom.
This is a very special edition of Destination Weirdsville. I’m going to take you on a trip. We’re going to Romania. Unfortunately I can’t fit all of you in my luggage so you’ll have to fight to the death gladiator style to see who gets to be smuggled into the country.
Okay, truth is, I probably can’t even fit one of you into my nonexistent luggage, so why don’t I just tell you about Romania instead. Does that sound good? Well, you don’t really get a choice. I’m not Bill Gates so I can’t afford to fly you all to Romania and give you a tour. Stop being so greedy!
Anyway, back to business. There is a place in western Romania know as the Hoia-Bacui Forest. This may, in fact, be the strangest place in all of Romania. Some even call it “The Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania.”
The forest is home to many strange happenings, causing the locals to avoid the place as much as possible, especially at night. They venture in occasionally to chop wood and other such nonsense. Do they really need to keep warm that badly? I highly doubt it. Fools, the lot of ’em.
Some of the most well known occurrences are feelings of being watched, hearing unnatural noises, unexplainable states of nausea and/or anxiety, headaches, and occasionally burns on the skin. These biological anomalies are often attributed to ghosts which are said to inhabit the forest. Some say it’s the spirits of villagers who were long ago murdered there. Others attribute the activity to something darker, the Devil himself. Some believe this place to be his, uh, let’s call it vacation home.
One of the most interesting things about the forest is a circular clearing, known strangely enough as “the circle.” How very imaginative and original, right? Some people say nothing grows in the circle, but that isn’t exactly true. Grass and weeds and such grow just fine there, there just aren’t any trees. According to reports, the circle is basically the epicenter of all activity in the forest. This is where the ghosts, or whatever the shadows that follow travelers through the forest are, are said to live. The circle is their home and where one is most likely to experience the paranormal activity that abounds in the forest.
Okay, so what do we have so far? A haunted forest where people who enter regularly report strange occurrences and the locals are afraid of. Sounds fairly common in terms of paranormal doesn’t it? Yeah I thought so too, but there’s another type of activity I haven’t mentioned yet.
Lights in the sky over the forest are seen pretty regularly. I’m not talking about airplane lights, either. I’m talking UFO’s, as in aliens, not secret government projects. Everyone knows there is no such thing as a secret government project. I was told I had to say that by the gentlemen who visited me. Happy, guys? I told the readers what they needed to hear. Oh, aliens aren’t real either and Area 51 is nothing more than a bakery to supply all branches of the U.S. military with delicious, freshly baked pastries. Can I go back to my post now, guys?
Okay, now that my friends in the black suits are gone, let’s recap. We have a haunted forest surrounded by aliens. Now that sounds like a pretty awesome location, a place where real fairytales are born. Not those stories that have been toned down for two years olds, the ones lining my daughter’s bookshelf.
What are your thoughts on the stories behind this place? Is there any credence to them or are they just that, stories? And more importantly, would you venture into the depths of the forest?
Adam Ickes 