Terrifying Story - Demon / Poltergeist

I received this personal story in October this year.

I am 22 years old and I will not give any real names. Lets call my girlfriend P.

Last year (2017) at the time, me and my girlfriend rented a place to live. This was the first time I live in a place other from my parents' home but I was not stressed at all by that fact. That's why I exclude stress as a reason for what happened later.

The first few weeks were wonderful, the place was small but comfortable. One evening me and P. decided to go to the cemetery. This cemetery is large and had wide alleys. You can ride inside of it with a car so we went with my automobile. At first there was nothing strange, we opened car windows as we were trying to hear something in the dark. It was a sepulchral silence as it is supposed to be on the cemetery: D. Then a dog appeared. It followed us without breaking away from us. That was weird. His eyes seemed somewhat cloudy. I wanted to emphasize that I am not a man who explains everything with spirits and stuff like that. Yes, I am very interested in the occult but to believe in something I need a lot of evidences. So I explained dog's eyes as a reflection from car lights although I know how dogs' eyes shine as I have had two dogs. We continued to move from place to place in the graveyard and the said dog continued to follow us for about an hour or so. Suddenly it began to behave strange - to howl and to look at the empty space. Then the dog disappeared. At that moment my girlfriend's phone began to behave strangely. It repeatedly turned off and on. Now we were able to hear some strange popping sounds from outside. Then something went in front of the car but I am not sure how real was that or we just imagined it. P. lit a cigarette that began to crack and burn pretty fast, it looked just like someone was pulling from it. We decided to move to the upper alley where we stopped. At that moment P. panicked. I could not figure out what was going on, she just talked unrelated things. The only thing that I understood was that she wanted to get out from cemetery. For the first and last time I saw her so scared. We got out of there and for about an hour after that she did not talk to me. It made me very nervous because I did not know what was going on. I was scared for her, she did not respond to my words as if she just could not hear me. At last she came to herself and told me that she had seen her grandmother sitting on one of the graveyard's benches, but the old lady had some nasty and disgusting expression on her face and some terrible energy was coming from there. Anyone would have thought that P. had seen her grandmother's spirit but that was not the case. I was terribly surprised when she told me that this was her grandmother that is alive not the one that passed away some time ago. At this moment I started to wonder if we saw a spirit or some other form of energy...

Few days later we were in the living room. I got up to go to the kitchen but then P. told me that the basket with the pinches has started to swing by itself. I turned around and I really saw it moving. I thought I made it swing as I was going to the kitchen so I tried to repeat it. Whatever I tried the basket did not move that way, so evenly and precisely swinging. It was weird, but honestly I did not pay much attention to that. The next night I had bought a packet of peanuts but I did not open it that evening, I just left it on the sofa next to me. In this house we slept on the couch because there was no bed there. Sometime in the morning I woke up wrom a sound. I heard the packet of peanuts crackling, as if someone was crushing it. I thought It must have been under me and I was making this sound but when I turned I saw that the packet was half a meter from me. The moment I turned the cracking sound stopped. In the following days there were more strange things, rustling, knocking, cracking cabinets in the kitchen, and so on but I did not feel it threatening. I did not feel an evil presence neither my girlfriend. It went like that for weeks and slowly we began to feel nervous from this activity. Then we were told by someone that for such things we can use incense. I decided to try it. I burned incense several times and everything stopped ... for few days.

One night we were at home. It was late in the evening so the lights were off. Nothing was visible but we heard how the Cristmas tree started to shake very loud. We heard how a lot of the toys fell. I immediately jumped and switch the light. I saw how the tree shake. The dryer was placed next to it and the clothes were also moving. It looked as if some energy was going through them but with terrible force not like an earthquake or something. Anyway as always I had to look for the first logical reason for what happened, so I searched Internet for any recorded earthquakes nearby (there were none). That was the moment we started sleeping with lights on. The presence began to feel as nasty thing. This time the things It did were stronger. I came to the conclusion that with the incense I probably angered the "thing," but because I'm stubborn as a donkey I continued to burn incense. Every time it stopped for a while and then it always returned. Finally I gave up. All this had worse impact on P. When we were outside she was feeling good, she was smiling and so energetic. When we were at home, she was nervous and bad thempered, something that is not usual for her. This led to constant scandals. The other thing I noticed was that the more we quarreled, the stronger "the thing" was.

For the New Year Eve my parents were out on holiday for a week so we moved to where they lives. At the last day of the year we were watching TV, our German shepperd dog was with us. At a particular moment the dog started to look at the ceiling and around the room and to growl. Soon it went back to normal. There were no more incidents while we were at my parents home. There were no scandals, everything was great.

Finally we had to go back to our rented home and everything bad started again.

The decision to move out finally came like this. It was at 2-3 in the morning. We just got a new scandal with P. so I got up and went to the kitchen to eat something because at the moment the food was the only thing that made me feel good. At that moment I heard P. calling me but in some weird voice, scared and somehow quiet. I went quickly there and saw something with the edge of my eye. Something that I can not explain. It disappeared in a fraction of a second. Then P. told me that as she stood and waited for me she looked up and saw a black spot over her head, something like a shadow or smoke. Then she felt a heavy blow on her head, like a small stone. The shadow dissapeared when I walked in. It was the last night there, it was March, and the next day we moved to live in my parents' summertime villa. We packed some of our stuff and move out. I went to the church and bought a holy cross. I stuck it in the books shelf in our rental home. We only went back to that place to collect some luggage. One day I was there in the kitchen. I heard something falling down. I went to the living room and found the cross on the ground. That's how it ended, we got out of there and things stopped, our scandals began to wane. I can not explain what it was, maybe it was a spirit, maybe a demon, maybe it was some other kind of energy. I have no idea. I have had strange experiences before in my life, but never such a serious thing. I do not know if our visit to the cemetery has anything to do with it. Now we live in the old apartment of my parents, they brought a new one and move out. There is nothing unusual happening to us, the German shepperd stayed with my parent, but we have a new dog. I want to have an alarm for such things, and I love dogs too. I sincerely hope that I will not have to write yet another such material. I do not want to repeat it anymore. I love the supernatural but not when it hurts me on my personal and professional life.

Sequel to a previous case: Possible UFO encounter and strange animal behavior

This story was told to me by a young reader of my bulgarian blog "Misterika". I am receiving readers accounts every month but this is one of the most intriguing cases that I ever came across.

That girl first appeared as a reader of my blog around 2015. Her young age (16 at that time) was not a suprise as a lot of teenagers are visiting Misterika thanks to the ghost stories. She was persecuted by vivid nightmares almost every night. We (me and other readers) tried to help her by giving her some advices how to get a better sleep and get rid of nightmares. It seemed that nothing works (or only worked for a short period of time).

Then at the end of 2016 something strange happened. I have described it here:

Possible UFO / abduction case - December 8th, 2016

Next months nothing extraordinary happened to this reader of mine. It seemed that things are getting back to normal. Up until end of September / beggining of October. The girl did not remember the exact date as she told me what happened weeks later (at that time I was in very bad condition and even had a surgery so I lost contact with most of my readers for some time).

This is her story.

That evening I was angry for something (I don't remember the reason now) and I went out to sit on the stairs. One of my cats immediately came to me and laid near my feets. This cat always come to me because when she was small I managed to join her to other cats and they stopped chasing her. At one time I noticed that the cat is looking at the direction of the centre of the village. I live on a place that is somehow elevated and some things can be seen from here - like the local school. At first I did not pay attention to the cat but she continued to stare at that direction so I looked too. What I saw was something like an aeroplane, or at first I decided that this is an aeroplane because of the lights. But when this "aeroplane" almost reached the roof of the school it started to move backwards and then disappeared. I thought that it might be hidden behind one of the trees but the first time this object passed the trees I saw it was not small enough to hid behind them. I waited about 5 minutes but this "plane" did not appear ever again.

From that evening the cat is acting strange. Every morning as I am going to school that cat is coming with me. First several days she was accompaning me only some distance away from my house but now she is coming to the centre of the village where she waits until I catch my bus and then she goes back home (note: this girl is not studing in the local school, she is traveling to the nearby big city). One day the cat tried to stop me with every possible trick, she even laid on front of me and I almost miss my bus. That day was awful, did the cat knew what was coming? But this is not all. That cat is acting so nice to me only at the morning when I am going to school around 5:00. That cat was always with me before and always cuddled to me every time I sat somewhere. From the appearance of the "aeroplane" this cat is acting very coldly toward me most of the time and always looks around as if she is expecting something. In the few times she laid to me, she did not relax, she was always on the alert. I noticed that cat sometimes sits at the corner of the terrace looking for a long time in the direction of the village centre.

*************************

This was the story of my reader. First let me say that I believe that this case is real and not a reader's fantasy. Through the years I have communicated with a lot of readers and sometimes I manage to catch people who likes to make things up ( believe me - not only teens but people of all ages like to fantasize). I don't think that is the case this time. Something happened in both stories this reader told me but is it paranormal? As always I tried to come up with rational explanations.

About that aeroplane that went backwards. When you are looking at a moving object and it is on the same level as your vision, it might look that it reverses its direction when actually it is turning. I tried to ilustrate this with this picture:

The plane moves from point A through point B to point C. But for a observer on the same level it might looks like it moves from A to B and then in the opposite direction back to point A.

About the cats. They are strange and temperamental animals. They may change their behavior for no reason. I have had a lot of cats through my life and I have seen how a cat temper change. So in this story all might be just normal.

Still is there a posibility that we are dealing with something extraordinary here? Is it possible that this is a case of years long alien observations (abductions?) of this girl? Did the cat sense it? I wonder are there any famous abduction cases in which some animals take important part (besides owls that propably are false memories hiding aliens) ? I remember one case that I read in a bulgarian UFO book. I think it happened in Russia and almost the whole forest (including trees) rised up and prevented an abduction from aliens. I am not sure if it is a real story but anyway I will try to find again this case. I have a lot of bulgarian UFO books that describe events from Bulgaria, Russia and Eastern Europe as general and I think a lot of cases are still not known to the english-speaking world.

Anyway, back to this case - does anyone has any suggestions?

BTW I just realised something. This is how the previous article ends:

Next days that girl had strange vivid dreams. Up until that encounter she had nightmares very often. Now they cnanged to strange confusing dreams in which her cat is replaced by a cloning. Other people are repaced too.

Now we have a strange cat behavior for real. WTF!

Well, well. "Immortal vampire" injured in the land of vampire slayers

Did you remember the conspirasy theory claiming that Nicolas Cage is an immortal vampire?

Crazy conspiracy theorists think that Nicolas Cage is an immortal vampire … and here’s why

It is all based on one old picture.

And did you know Bulgaria used to be a place where people made sure the dead would not come as vampires? Over 100 graves have been uncovered, revealing skeletons with stakes through their hearts and mutilated bones.

Bulgaria’s Vampire Graveyards

What's the connection between these two articles? Well, something interesting happened at the end of April. It seems quite ordinary but as always we can make a very rich story from it.

Freak accident’ in Bulgaria: Nicolas Cage breaks ankle during movie shoot

After what was described as a “freak accident”, the very active actor was taken to a hospital in Sofia. While the doctors on site wanted to take him to surgery, Nicolas Cage insisted to be flown to Los Angeles, which is where he is now. He basically ran away. Why? Probably he was not sure how good bulgarian doctors are. Or...or he was afraid from something. Who knows maybe vampire hunters are still around in Bulgaria and the accident was not an accident at all....

(picture taken from www.costumemodels.com)

The controversial Bulgarian prophet Baba Vanga

Baba Vanga (Grandmother Vanga) was a bulgarian clairvoyant well known in Russia and in her own country Bulgaria. In recent years I noticed a lot of articles about her in western news sites as well. Vanga is even called the Nostradamus of the Balkans. According to some the blind prophet foretold 9/11, the 2004 tsunami, the Fukushima disaster and the birth of ISIS. But did she? Let's find out.

Let me start with some bio. Baba Vanga (31 January 1911 – 11 August 1996), born Vangeliya Pandeva Dimitrova, known after her marriage as Vangelia Gushterova, was a blind mystic, clairvoyant, and herbalist, who spent most of her life in the city of Petrich or in Rupite village in the southern mountains of Bulgaria. She was born in Strumica, then in the Ottoman Empire, present day Republic of Macedonia. In her childhood, Vangelia was an ordinary child with brown eyes and blonde hair. According to her own testimony, a turning point in her life occurred when a 'tornado' allegedly lifted her into the air and threw her in a nearby field. She was found after a long search. Witnesses described her as very frightened, and her eyes were covered with sand and dust, she was unable to open them because of the pain. She gradually lost sight.

During World War II, Vanga attracted believers with her ability to heal and soothsay – a number of people visited her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives were alive. On 8 April 1942 even the Bulgarian tzar Boris III visited her. In 1942 Vanga married Dimitar Gushterov, a bulgarian soldier who had come asking for the killers of his brother but had to promise her not to seek revenge. He got ill in 1947, fell into alcoholism, and eventually died on 1 April 1962.

She continued to be visited by both important persons and commoners after World War Two. Bulgarian politicians and leaders from different Soviet Republics, even Leonid Brezhnev, sought her counsel. Vanga died on 11 August 1996 from breast cancer.

You can read more about her life in this Wikipedia article.

Baba Vanga's house in Rupite:

Nowadays there is a church dedicated to Baba Vanga. The Church of St Petka was constructed at a site chosen by Baba Vanga in 1992. It should be noted that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church do not approve this temple claiming it is in conflict with canons. Orthodox Church is even harsher toward Vanga herself. In 2011 some priests proclaimed Peter Deunov for a false preacher and Baba Vanga for nothing more that a sorceress. (Note: Peter Deunov is another popular bulgarian from the past, philosopher and spiritual teacher). Nikolay, the well known metropolitan of Plovdiv (quite controversial figure himself) even claimed Vanga was a satanic phenomen.

But was her phenomen at all? It is very hard to say. There are a lot of believers who will fiercely defend her (I put priests in the "believers" as they believe in her powers, they just deny they are from God). There are a lot of sceptics too (myself included). Unfortunately as always after so many years it is hard to separate facts from fiction but let's try to do it anyway.

I had my first doubts about Vanga as a young teenager. It was 1994 and Bulgarian national football team was very successful in 15th FIFA World Cup, held in the the United States. I heard on TV that Vanga had predicted who would reach the final. She said two countries beginning with the letter "B" would be in the final match. At that stage there were only two countries with "B" as a first letter still in the competition - Bulgaria and Brazil. So everyone expected Bulgaria to reach the final. It did not happen. The final match was Brazil vs Italy (Brazil won).

Two years latter Vanga died and the story seemed over. But few years after that I noticed something strange - more and more articles about Vanga started to appear. They were about never heard before predictions of Vanga. Soon I started to notice a pattern. They claimed a lot of past events were predicted by Vanga but almost none of the future predicted events ever came true. I noticed the same pattern in english articles too. Here is an example:

Here are 13 predictions that Baba Vanga made for 2016 and the future

"She is called the Nostradamus of the Balkans, and with good reason. Baba, Vanga, the blind Bulgarian clairvoyant, who died 20 years ago, is believed to have predicted the rise of the ISIS, the fall of the twin towers, the 2004 Tsunami, and the global warming, among a host of other events."

Barack Obama will be the last president of the US: Baba Vanga had predicted that the 44th US president would be an African American, but she had also added that he would be the last one.

Europe will cease to exist: According to Baba Vanga, the continent will cease to exist by 2016, and all that would remain will be empty spaces and wasteland, nearly devoid of any form of life.

Well, it is now 2017 and we know Obama was not the last president of USA and as I live in Europe I can asure you it is still very populated and lively. So what about all those global predictions? Once I talked with someone who have written a book about Baba Vanga and she told me most of the things we see as Vanga's predictions have never been told by her. It is all "fake news".

This is the reason why I stopped to pay attention to any news about Vanga. Still that does not answer the question about her supposed supernatural powers. Were they real? Ordinary people who visited Vanga in the past might give us more accurate picture about her. Unfortunately I haven't met (online and offline) a lot of such people as they are from an older generation. Most of the stories that I have heard are second hand accounts. They are not very convincing.

Here is a quick example. Once I talked with someone who claimed Baba Vanga predicted to his parents that their only son would spent some time in the prison. He really spent some time behind bars and he was firm believer in Vanga (almost as a fanatic). I did not get a lot of info from him. I don't know when he learned about this prediction. Did his parents tell him about that before or after he has been in prison? Did this man learn about the prediction before going to prison? In this case is this a self-fulfilled prophecy? He might lived all his life without too much of a care. Good or bad behavior was not important, prison was ahead no matter what. So maybe he chose the bad but funny way of life. Or maybe his parents told him about the prophecy after he got out of prison? Maybe they just wanted to calm him and it is all a lie made up by them - "you are not guity, this was your fate that cannot be changed, Vanga told us so." I am not claiming that any of this is the real explanation about this case, I am just showing that I still haven't found the smoking gun witness account. The one that will prove Baba Vanga was a real clairvoyant.

Still there are some very interesting stories from ordinary people written in reliable sources. I read about two such cases in the memoirs of Petko Venedikov.

Petko Venedikov (1905-1995) was a very famous and respected bulgarian lawyer, a professor of Roman and civil law, known for his writings on property law, family law, civil process. Not many people know that he was very interested in supernatural as well. He participated in a lot of spiritual seances. This is the part about Baba Vanga that I find interesting:

"There was a lot of talk about famous Vanga from Petrich. I have heard a lot of things about her. But undoubtedly the first credible story was told by my colegue Peter Gerganov, a young lawyer and zealous communist party member. He had visited Vanga twice for a criminal case. First time Vanga said that his client would be sent to prison but for how long she could not tell then. On the day before the trial she said he would be sentenced to two years. This was court verdict as well.

The other case I heard one evening at the office of the late lawyer Komitski. I was already retired and he invited me after work to go to him because he had a jug of good wine. A working woman, forty-five years old, came in the office. Komitski introduced her as a former communist guerilla, now head of a department in "Malchika" factory. She told us the story that follows. After the victory (over the old regime) she and a friend of her passed through Petrich. They have heard a lot about Vanga and they decided to talk to her. Why not? They called her home and Vanga said: "Come in, but leave your guns outside." Vanga told the woman about her family, parents, brothers, sisters, etc. Also Vanga said something like that: "When you were going to a meeting with Tano Tsolov (another guerilla) you slipped into the river ... Since then there is a scar on the handle of your gun." Then Vanga told her: "In your village there is a large tree. On so-and-so feet away a rifle is buried. This rifle belonged to (name withheld) who was killed at (name withheld)." The woman then told us that when they came out she checked her gun and there really was a scar. Then they went to her village and they found the buried riffle."

These two cases are very interesting and I will come to them again later in this article. There are more things about Vanga in the memoirs of Petko Venedikov.

"Two or three years ago when Perestroika started in Russia professor Shipkovenski made a film about Vanga. It showed conversations between Vanga and some people. I noticed that at the beginning Vanga was uncertain about family members of the people and gave some false answers but slowly her answers became more accurate. [ ... ] There were three psychiatrists and two psychologists in the film. To my surprise, they claimed Vanga is a fraud. She used the reactions to the false answers to understand what answer people expect at the end. It was quite absurd. I know that there are magicians in circus who can "read minds" in this way. Tricksters talk to the people and observe their expressions and body language so they can find the correct answer. But none of this was true in the case of Vanga. She is blind."

Today a lot of serious scientists from Bulgaria and Russia continue to doubt Vanga's paranormal abilities. At the end of 2016 I read an article about the russian academician Evgeny Alexandrov and Vanga. This is part of the article:

"Everything is known for Vanga. She was a blind sad woman. But she also was an excellent businesswoman who once managed to turn one of the most backward and obscure places in Bulgaria into a center of pilgrimage for people from all over the world. Do you know who most prayed for her? Taxi drivers, waiters in restaurants and cafes, hoteliers - people who earn good money from the work of the "clairvoyant", said the academician.

According to him, these people (taxi drivers, waiters and so on) were communicating with visitors and then they were giving all the information to Vanga. Then Baba Vanga was telling the same information to her astonished visitors. Alexandrov revealed that there were such "psychics" in Russia too.

Is that all? Was it all just a clever scam? We may never know. Still maybe there is something more that can be added to the story of Baba Vanga, something that is dark and sinister.

There are a lot of rumours, speculations and claims that "Baba Vanga" was actually a project of the bulgarian secret service known as Committee for State Security (ДС). It was a very powerful organization. According to some it did not disband after the fall of the communist regime but transformed and went underground. A lot of people in Bulgaria beleive that today ДС still rules the country behind the scenes. The secret archive of ДС is not fully declassified to this day and it is a source of great controversy. The agency is often incriminated with the ill-famed murder of dissident writer Georgi Markov using a "Bulgarian umbrella" on London's Waterloo Bridge in 1978 and was formerly accused of the 1981 attempt on Pope John Paul II's life. So it was (is?) a very powerful organization that can do with ease something like a large scale social control project. According to this conspiracy theory secret agents used Vanga to spy on people who visited her. They would often tell her things that they wouldn't normally tell anyone else. Conection between ДС and Vanga can be a good explanation for the incredible cases from Petko Venedikov's memoirs. Maybe Vanga knew in advance what will be the prison sentence of the accused man, agents have told her. And maybe "the buried rifle" is just a legend created by the secret service. This story was told by an ex-guerilla and as a devoted supporter of the regime she would tell everything that agents wanted from her. Still I don't say that this is how thing happened but it is a possible scenario.

So is it Baba Vanga a real prophet at the end? Hard to tell. Maybe we will know much more about her one day when all secret archives are declassified. When this finally happens (if ever) we will know much more about another strange events from the past too. Like what the military found in 1990 when they dug deep into the so called "Hole of Tsarichina".

Lars Mittank - a mysterious disappearance from Bulgaria

Through the years I have covered a lot of different stories about disappearances in my bulgarian blog. Missing people, ships, places (Restaurant X) and even whole settlements (The Mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke), I have them all. Apart from this the so called "lost civilizations" are a whole separate topic.

If we talk only about people some of the missing were never found, others were found alive or dead but the events connected to their disappearances were never revealed (The Bizarre Case of Claudette Souchon).

For some stories it is not clear if they ever happened (David Lang's Walk). Others are true for sure and they are full with paranormal theories (Farmer may hold UFO clue to 36-year Valentich plane mystery). Some are eerie and mysterious even without a supernatural connection (How could a woman just vanish?).

I have never really thought that one day Bulgaria (where I live) will be a scene for one of the strangest cases of missing people. But as they say - anything may happen anywhere.

This is the story of Lars Mittank who disappeared in 2014 while on holiday in Bulgaria. I used several sources for this article. Unfortunately some of the details from the different sources are contradictory and this leads to some confusion. The police knows all the exact details for sure. They are known as well to Mittank's relatives and to the private detective that searched for him. But I am not from that group of people so I can only trust news articles.

So let's begin.

Lars Mittank arrived in Bulgaria on 30 June 2014 together with a tourist group sent by german company TUI. He was 28 years old at that time. The group stayed in "Viva" hotel in Golden Sands complex and as many other westeners they participated in so called "drinking tours" in the local bars.

One day while he was in a bar Mittank got caught in a fight between rival football fans. This is the first thing that is not very clear to me. Some articles suggests that Mittank had nothing to do with the fight. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least one articles claims Mittank as a fan of "Werder Bremen" was fighting with fans of FC "Bayern Munich". If this is true then who were those fans? It is logical to suggest that they were germans too. Lars suffered an injury in his ear as a result from the brawl.

After the injury Mittank visited a doctor who prescribed him the antibiotic "Cefuroxime 500" and warned him that it was not save to fly with an airplane because of the trauma. This is why Mittank did not return with others to Germany on June 7. At that moment Mittank was left alone. Around 6:00 am that day Lars left "Viva" hotel and took a taxi to Varna where he visited another doctor. The doctor prescribed him "CEFZIL". It is not clear to me if this is the same visit to a doctor that is mentioned above. Some details (like the medice prescribed) are different. Is this a second visit?

Later that day Mittank returned to "Viva", probably to take his luggage. After that he took another taxi and asked the driver to take him to a cheap hotel in Varna city. He booked in "Kolor" in the central part of the town. Mittank spent some part of the night there. Things got more and more strange from here. In the midle of the night Mittank called his mother (another article claims he texted her). On the phone he sounded very constrained. Once again there are some differences in the news sources. Some claim he told his mother that his credit card is blocked and  four unknown men are following him. They even asked him what are these pills he was taking. His mother Sandra Mittank made an attempt to deblock his card so Lars can buy tickets.

Lars left "Kolor" around 1:00 a.m. on June 8 as if he was frightened by something. Soon after that he called his mother once again. He told her that he was followed by four fans of "Bayern" who called him "Bremen's pig" and "nazi".

"He was not talking loud and he said that he is in a hideout in a high place. He must be very cautious not to fall" - this is what Sandra Mittank told the police.

Lars Mittank also said to his mother that he would try to reach the airport in Varna and to visit the doctor there (for the second or third time?). He wanted to ask what is this medice that previous doctor(s) prescribed to him. 

A very important question - were those four unknown men that asked Mittank about his pills in the hotel the same four "football fans" that followed him after he left? Even more important question - were they the same fans of  "Bayern Munich" that Lars fought with? If so how did they find him again? Were they searching for Lars?

It is not known where Lars spent the rest of the night and where is this "high place". At 5:00 a.m. in the morning he managed to reach the airport with a taxi. He can be seen on the cameras how he enters in the airport. Lars Mittank looks calm at that point.

Once again Lars made a telephon call to his mother and told her he has no money.

"It was strange" - Sandra Mittank explains - "he told me that he has enough money the last time he called."

Meanwhile Sandra Mittank managed to buy two online tickets for her son. One was for a flight from Varna to Germany (the exact destination is not mentioned) and one for a bus to Hamburg. Lars Mittank was supposed to leave Bulgaria in 16:20 on June 8 and to arrive in Germany on 21:45 the same day.

Lars Mittank looked normal while he was in the doctor's office though somehow uneasy. He insisted to travel despite ear injury. This is why the doctor gave him to sign a declaration that Mittank would fly on his own responsibility. At that moment Lars suddenly ran out from the office leaving all his luggage, ID papers and his cell phone. What was it that terrified him? Was it the declaraion they gave him to sign? What did he think? Did he think that the doctor wanted to involve him in a dirty deal? Another web site points out that Mittank ran out when he noticed a man dressed like a "construction worker" to approach the doctor's office.

This video is captured by security cameras on Varna airport. We can see that Mittank was calm when he entered the building. He left running.

Eye witnesses claimed that they have seen Mittank to jump over airport's fence and to run toward nearby forest. This was the last time he was ever seen.

For this story I used mostly this news articles:

Изгубен ли случаят "Намери Ларс Митанк"

The Mystery Disappearance of Lars Mittank

People who mysteriously vanished from airports

This is how Lars Mittank was looking at the time of his disappearance and how he possibly looks a year later:

More pictures of him:

The mystery of Lars Mittank disappeance can be separated in two parts, there are two questions. Why did he acted so strange? And what have happened to him after he left the airport?

Here are some possibilities about the first question.

1) Everything that Mittank told his mother on the phone was true. Unknown men did follow him.

2) Everything was just a fantasy and hallucination. Mittank suffered from paranoia.

Velislav Bonev, menager of "BSA Bodyguard & Security Association" has a similar version about the disappearance. While on drinking tour Mittank may has consumed syntethic drugs with prolonged effect, probably without even noticing.

"This is no exception", said Bonev. "According the information he have, Lars didn't use drugs before. He was not addicted to alchohol too. He had a good job in an electricity station and a normal behavior for his age. But in such cases when a syntetic drug is used a nasty effect known as "frying" may happen. The drug triggers paranoid reactions and leads to prolonged depression and anxiety".

3) The third possibility is least probable. There are no facts that support it but still we must not dismiss it so easily. Mittank might has not been under influence of a drug and might has not been suffering from paranoia and still he might has told false thing on the phone - about "four unknown men following him" and so on. This means one thing - he lied. I can think of only one reason why he might did this - he wanted to "disappear" and to send those who would search for him in a wrong direction.

Now let's see what might have happened to Lars after he left Varna airport.

Soon after Lars went missing Sandra Mittank anounced a reward for any information that can help to find her son. As far as I know the reward is 40 000 euro. In 2015 people from Sofia (capital of Bulgaria) called and claimed that Lars was living as a homeless man in a park. This relates to the first version mentioned above - that Mittank has suffered psychological breakdown and he might has lost his memory (because of drugs or some other reason). The homeless man was photographed and the picture was sent to Germany. Although only an ear and part of his face were visible, experts said that with 80 percent probability this was Lars Mittank. Sandra Mittank and the private detective Guetig flew to Sofia and went to the park. It turned out the homeless man is a complete counterpart (doppelganger) of Lars but he was a bulgarian. This was a srange coincidence itself but it did not help to solve Mittank's mystery.

Заради наградата от 40 000 евро намериха клошар-двойник на изчезналия във Варна Ларс (English: Homeless doppleganger of missing Lars found bacause of the 40 000 euro reward)

Another version is that because of ear trauma and the danger of flying (or the fear that he was followed), Mittank decided to hitchhike to Germany. It would be quite hard - let's not forget that he left all his money and IDs in doctor's office at the airport. But this is not totally impossible - just ask trafficants and refugees that are roaming Eaurope right now. There was even info that Lars Mittank has been seen in Romania.

Ларс Митанк видян в Румъния (English: Lars Mittank seen in Romania)

Let's say it was true. It is oblvious now that Mittank failed to reach Germany hitchhiking. What may have happened? Did criminals attack him? They did not find any money in Lars so they killed him in a rage. He might be buried somewhere where no one will ever find his body. Or probably wild animals attacked him? Never underestimate wolves of Transilvania. Or did human trafficants kill Mittank? Things may have happened this way - somehow Lars made contact with those who smuggle refugees to Western Europe. He had no money so he promised them to pay when he riches Germany. This can explain how eventually Lars managed to leave Bulgaria without ID papers. At some point trafficants got anxious. Lars was not the typical refugee, he was a german. What if they get in trouble because of him? So trafficants decided to kill him and get rid of the body. Does this version sound plausible? Maybe this is what have happaned to Lars Mittank. Or maybe not...

Next article about Mittank is so "yellow news" that I will not even discuss it, I'll just give the title:

Германецът Ларс отвлечен от перничанка? (English: Lars abducted by a woman from Pernik*)

*Pernik - well known "wild west" bulgarian city.

Next article can be connected to the third version - Lars Mittank might have acted so strange in order to fool those who may search for him. Maybe he wanted to hide his traces so he can go to Syria or Ukraine.

Изчезналият германец отишъл да се бие в Украйна? (Eng: The missing german went to fight in Ukraine?)

There are a lot of foreigners in both conflicts and they are fighting on every side. In Ukraine some support ukrainian forces while others support so called pro-russian separatists. In Syria there are foreigners fighting for Daesh, Assad, Al Queda, syrian rebels, kurds.... The dead foreigners are buried in unnamed graves in most of the cases. If this is the fate of Mittank he may never be found.

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Intrigued by this case I decide to look deeper into disappearances in Bulgaria. It may sounds strange but almost every week someone disappear here. In the first day when I was preparing this article I found two such news stories:

Мъж се е изгубил в Лозенска планина (English: A man got lost in Lozenska mountain, Update: later they found him alive)

МВР продължава издирването на 39-годишен мъж от София (English: Autorities keep searching for a 39 years old man from Sofia, missing since 8 November 2015)

There is even one twitter profile that tweets only about missing bulgarians, it posts very often:

Безследно изчезнали

It is terrifying, too often people disappear! Some of them are found alive and well (children often run away from home). Others are never found. And some are found dead. Some cases are shrouded in mystery. Few examples:

Изчезването на студента от Пловдив остава мистерия (English: Disappeance of the student from Plovdiv still a mystery)

He was later found dead but it did not solve the mystery.

Откриха мъртъв изчезналия студент от Пловдив (English: Missing student from Plovdiv found dead)

Мистерия! Изчезнал в Перник - изплува удавен в Сарафово (English: Mystery! Disappeared in Pernik found drown in Sarafovo)

Мистерията с художника, който подпали картините си и изчезна, продължава (English: Mystery with the artist who put his paintings on fire and disappeared contunues)

Probably none of this cases has any connection with Lars Mittank but who knows - maybe we can find something common or at least understand why so many people disappear. Experts know this better. It is no coincidence that when bulgarian movie director Zahari Paunov disappeared, the german detective Guetig (looking for Mittank) was interested in the case.

Не е ясно къде е засечен последният разговор на изчезналия режисьор Паунов (English: It is not clear where the last call from missing director Paunov was detected)

Later Paunov was found dead.

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So what can we do?

First and most important - do not disappear! Do not go alone to suspicious locations and always tell someone where are you going.

Second, keep your eyes open. I know that a lot of bulgarian readers of my blog "Misterika" are doing this even without telling them. A lot of them (especially the young) love to search for mysteries. I have received some pictures from spooky places through the years. Usually I warn them to be careful and not to go alone (especially in the night) but some do not listen to me :) I myself go to "searching expeditions" from time to time. Well, next time we go out we may look not only for UFOs, ghosts and strange creatures but for strange people too. Who knows - we may stumble upon a blonde bum with empty look in his eyes who speaks only german. Maybe Lars Mittank indeed lost his memory and maybe he indeed lives somewhere in Bulgaria as a forest hermit now...

At the end - some eerie or at least strange pictures that I have received through the years:

Dead man walking in a small bulgarian village

I received this story not long ago. It was send to me by a young reader of my bulgarian blog. It is very interesting encounter so I am translating it in english.

I am 19 years old now and this happened 6-7 years ago. I was in my mother's home village (near Smolyan, I rearly go there). It was almost winter. One of my friends from that village just got brand new air rifle so we went around the village stooting bottles. On our way back to the village we passed by a gully where we saw a figure. We both thought this was a man from the village so we decided to make a joke.

We aproched the man from the back and my friend pointed the now empty gun at the figure while I screamed "Hands Up!" I remember very cleary how long and loud the echo sounded around. Then the man turned with his face toward us. I saw how my friend froze then he dropped the gun on the ground (I still remember this sound too). My friend just whispered "RUN" and started to run up the hill. He was running and crying, from time to time he was turning his head to see if the man was after us. I was running and crying too as I didn't know what was happening.

After 5 minutes we were in my friend's room. I asked him "What happened?" and he replied "that man, they buried him last week". I imediately burst again into tears so load that his parents came to the room. We told them what we have seen. I don't know if they believed us but his father went to take the rifle. Soon he returned. There was no rifle but the look of his eyes was strange. His parents forbid us to go to that place anymore. We think he saw the same dead man walking that we saw.

Original story in bulgarian

Was this a vampire? The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early-18th-century southeastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire.

“The Vampire”, lithograph by R. de Moraine (1864)

UFO over Nova Zagora (January 2016)

On 15 January 2016 a bulgarian news site run a story about a UFO sighting near the city of Nova Zagora that happened a day earier. A reader claimed that he witnessed a military jet chasing a strange object. Soon this UFO case went global.

It even appeared in the popular site "Mysterious Universe":

Bulgarian Jets Chase UFO Near Mysterious UFO-Shaped Building

One of the comments stated this:

"Looks like an A-10, I doubt the Bulgarians fly them, so the pic is fake."

But that is not correct. There are american A-10 in Bulgaria. They participate in military excersises.

Meanwhile I found another interesting article in another website. It was published 4 days earlier on 11 January 2016. Here is the translation:

„Unknown” airplane alarmed websites. It turned out this was air drill

“24 chasa”, 11.1.2016

Today afternoon an unknown airplane alarmed planespotting websites with its strange movement.

Ministry of Defense commented for “24 chasa” that it is probably a plane participicating in the NATO international aviation drill that started on 4th January.

For this excersise for the first time USA sended to Bulgaria ten planes А-10 that supports infantry. But in this case it might be КС-135 air tanker.

According to online map flightradar24.com the plane came from north and after reaching Stara Zagova it began its strange movement. First it headed toward Hisaria and Panagiurishte, then turned toward Burgas and over Karnobat it turned again toward Sofia. Then it started to make circles over Sliven and Straldja. In 16:30 the plane approched borders of Turkey and Greece. In 17:00 it switched off its transponder and dissapeared from the radar.

The plane mostly circles over military training ground in Novo Selo which means that it was doing operative tasks in the aviation drills, commented from Ministry of Defense.

http://www.24chasa.bg/Article.asp?ArticleId=5226275

I am very sceptical about this sighting. I doubt it is an unknown craft on the picture. No other witnesses came forward and no video was realised. Probably it was just another military jet seen from a different angle or maybe even a bird.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (Strange encounters)

I received all of these stories in 2013.

She (old relative) is known in the family for her visions...sometimes she dream them...sometimes she speaks with strangers on the streets that dissapears just like that...

The last such case happened before two weeks. She was on the field with one of her sons, her son's wife and their child. They were working each on some distance from the others, only the small child was running around. Soon a young man on a horse without a saddle appeared and asked the old woman about the direction to the main road E79. She told him, at that time the child came and the old lady turned toward him to see what the boy want. When she turned again toward the horseman, he was dissapeared.

Her son's wife said later that she saw from a distance that the old woman was talking to a man on a horse. When the other son of the old lady heard this story, he started to joke that the woman was sleeping but again the wife of the other son claimed to have seen the horseman. Then the son jumped on his car and went to the field but he found no traces of a horse, not even from the shoes of the stranger - the woman took very good look at them - they were old fashioned but looked brand new.

Was this horseman a time traveller?

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I received this story on skype. My questions are in green.

It happened in the winter of 2010 after we finished high school. We decided to gather in the hut of my aunt in village Svidnya.

We were 9 people total. Everything was normal, we celebrated. Then I, two other boys and a girl decided to take a walk at the forest in the night as there is no wolves or bears here. It was dark, we had lights and everything was ok but we decided to go back because it was cold. I decided to use different path passing near an old abandoned hut. There is a legend about this hut and I wanted to scare a bit my friends. While we were walking the girl started to scream and to cry. We asked her what was the problem and she told us that she has heard noise behind her and she has seen a big man with glowing dark blue eyes. I thought that she knew the legend and that she was joking but there was no way for her to know the story as she was for the first time in the village.

Myself and one of the other boys decided to return to take a look but there was nothing or at least I did not see anything. But before I realised what was going on the other boy started to run. I shocked - I was alone in the forest in 2-3 o'clock in the night so I started to run too. I reached the others but this boy (Martin) was not with them. We were scared, we called the other to search him but after we were unable to find him we called a forest patrol. At 6:30 we found him sitting next to a tree, his clothes were torn and he had wounds on his back. He was talking some strange things about a man or a creature with blue eyes, long arms and big hair - it appeared behind him and Martin lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness he was in shock and waited there until we arrived. He spent next 3 weeks in a hospital in Sofia without to talk.

Since then this boy has mental problems and no one goes to the hut anymore, I fear too.

What is exactly the legend?

It is about a man and a woman that used to live in the abandoned hut. Once the man went to the village to buy some food. When he returned he found only blood strains and the blue eyes of his wife. In his madness he went in the wilderness to search for her. Some claim that he is still searching for the body of his wife and that he attacks everyone that he meets. Some people claim that they have seen him. People call him the blue-eyed demon.

Is your frind ok now?

He started to talk but he does not want to remenber that day. He still has scars on his back. The strangest thing is that no one can survive more than 2 hour outside when temperatures are as low as - 20 C.

Maybe the creature has saved his life?

Yes and bringed him to madness.

This is a serious case with attack on human - did the local newspapers wrote about this?

I don't know, we were in shock after this.

***

I did not find anything more on the internet about this case or about the legend. This does not mean that this hasn't happened. A lot of information is still not digitalized in Bulgaria. For example I found a refference to a book with local legends about Svidnya but I still cannot find the book itself.

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This happened in May 1997. That year I decided to visit a friend who lives in city of Ruse and without a warning I took the train and went to that city. I worked in Sliven, I traveled all day and I arrived in Ruse at the evening. I went to the post office (we did not have mobile phones back then) and I called my friend. His father picked up and he told me that my friend was in the hospital (maybe I should tell you that we met in a clinic where we were healing from alcohol addiction). I want to emphasize that I hadn't been drinking for months and what I saw was not under the influence of alcohol.

So I found myself in a the city alone and without money (I called my mother to send me money on the next day) and I had to survive the night. I walked along the Danube river. I sat in the park with huge trees, lanterns were lit, but soon it began to darken. It was late spring, but the nights were still cold. I did not know what to do. I went outside of the town, truck drivers whistled and waved to me as if I was crazy. At the end of the town I approached something like a grove. There were houses nearby so I was not completely isolated. When I found a small clearing among the trees it was almost night. I used my backpack as a pillow. From the nearby houses I could hear barking of the dogs. I tried to sleep but then the wind came and the trees started to make noises and I got a little bit afraid.

Then in the branches of a nearby tree I noticed greenish light. I thought it was a butterfly but it came up to me and landed on the grass close to me. I thought "wow, what a glowing butterfly" but it was no butterfly because I clearly could make out tiny little body and delicate face. It was a fairy or something that resembled it as we imagine fairies. Although her aura was pale green, clearly I saw the tiny white dress. So this thing landed and went to sleep. I was suddenly calmed and staring at it I also fell asleep. In the morning there was no sign of it, but I was accompanied by the pleasant feeling long after that.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (Ghosts)

A young woman sent me this story in 2013

Ghost in an apartment building in Veliko Tarnovo (2010)

...But the story is very interesting and I still wonder if it is possible. It was exactly 3 years ago. I was working in a flower shop whose owner was the father of the boy involved. His name is M. and his girlfriend is D. They rented an apartment, they have lived together and they had no troubles till this moment. Only the rent was strangely low, that is very strange for a city like Veliko Tarnovo where rents are quite high.

All started one night with the wake of their dog. It started to bark toward the door. Almost every night this animal barked toward the empty space and nobody was able to calm it. They did not pay big attention to this until one morning M. found his shoes in front of the mirror. Whereever he put them in the evening on the next morning they were always next to each other in front of the mirror.

My friends became worried. D. did not want to stay alone in the apartment unit. They stopped to turn off lights in the night, TV was always on, the dog continued to bark against the void. One day in the shop D. made a scandal to M. She accused him that he was in the apartment with other woman because the bed was a mess. At that day M. did not leave the shop at all so I and other collegues calmed D. One night M. saw a girl around 10-12 years old in the mirror. They called a priest to make a ritual but the girl showed up one more time and again only M. saw her. They went to an old woman who told them to buy some clothing and to give it to a girl the same age as the ghost. They did that but I don't know if it worked as I left this job at that time. I have heard that ghosts of children do not leave easy. M. and D. talked to their neighbours in the apartment building. They asked if some kind of tragedy has happend in this unit but nothing of that kind has happend. One of the famous mediums in Veliko Tarnovo [name withheld] lives two floors under their apartment. I call them witches because they non-stop call ghosts of the dead and maybe she is the the reason why the ghost of the girl appeared.

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I received this in 2013.

One friend has a house in Botevgrad. It is one of the oldest and it is home of strange "activity". My friend's mother has a photo album with pictures of people who should not be on the photographies.

This picture is taken in this house and it shows a ball that was not present at the moment.

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A young woman sent me some stories from Varna and around

This story is from January (2013). The grandmother of one of my friends has died. I had a medical operation in January and I slept at my friend's home. At one night when he was in the bathroom, I heard that someone is opening and closings furniture lockers as if he was searching for something. I thought it was my friend but he was still in the bathroom. Also the place where the old lady used to sit and to watch TV was always warm.

***

Mall Varna is close to the cemetery and a lot of people claim that they have seen ghosts there. One collegue told me that he has seen a shadow of an old man in front of the elevator.

***

But the most interesting story is this.

In Spring of 2007 we did christening of my cousin and I was godmother. The priest was very nice. He is a real holy man, he helps addicts. When he talks you feel so peaceful.

I am interested in religion and I went again to him. There were some old ladies in front of his house who told me some unbelievable stories how the priest helped and cured them. At first I didn't believe them.

The priest invite me in a room and we talked. Then a couple came in. The woman looked sick and pale as if she was very ill. The man explained how they went to doctors but they did not find anything. Doctors told him it was all psychological. The man did not believe in magic but he has heard about the priest and they decided to come.

The priest started to talk and in the same time the woman felt bad. She told him to stop talking. We all were stunned but the priest said that she was not the one that was talking. He went to take some holy water. When the priest returned he told the man to hold his wife and she started to writhe just as in the movie "Exorcist". He sprayed her with the water and some steam started to rise from her. This was impossible! I was very frightened! Soon she calmed. The priest said that the unholy spirit was still not chased away and she should come again. Then the priest and the man went outside to talk. I was with the woman and she told me that she knew there was something in her but nobody believed her.

Later I heard that the priest chased away the evil spirit and even helped the couple to have children. I wanted to find again this priest but he has moved to another village.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (UFO)

These are some of the sotries I've received from the readers of my blog.

In 2010 a young boy sent me this story:

It was August 2009 around 22:00. Me and my father were in a villa near the city of Ruse. We went outside and my father spotted something in the sky, he showed it to me. It looked like a plane in the night but it was stationary. I just decided to go inside to take binoculars when it started to move! It made a circle and passed right above the house. It formed something like a spiral. Everything was white. Then it vanished. We heard that there was a hole in the ground on the place where it vanished.  The soil inside was frozen.

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In 2011 I received a story from a young girl about a UFO sighting in Gabrovo from 2008:

We were in school (2nd grade elementary school) and one of my schoolmates was looking through the window. He said with wonder that a military jet is chased by an oval object. All rushed to the window to see what is going on and to see if he was lying. Something was really chasing the plane. There was not enough room for me on this window so I rushed to another one. I looked through the window that was facing the Maths high school. I think I saw the object to fall behind that school.

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I received this story in 2013:

Around 5 years ago me and my girlfriend were in Aiazmoto - this is a park with alleys and benches on a hill close to the city of Stara Zagora. It was summer and we were sitting on a bench and we were talking. We were 18-19 years old at that time. There were no lights around and we were watching the night sky. There were some stars between the trees. I was looking at a star - not the brightest but bright enough. We both were looking in that direction. We talked about half an hour when exactly this star made a move like a falling star leaving a trail. It seemed that this movement is not down but up toward space. The trail was short. A second later everything was gone. I looked at my girlfriend and ask her if she has seen the same. She told me "yes". We stayed there 2-3 more minutes but the star did not appear again. There were no clouds, there were no trees there to hide it - it just dissapeared. We talked a little about that then we felt scared and we left.

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These photos were sent to me by a reader of the blog. All of them are made in 2013. I have cropped and zoomed some of the objects.

First 2 photos are taken over Rupite. They look like classical UFO known as "flying saucers".

Next picture is taken on 17 September 2013 over Belasitza mountain.

Another picture from Belasitza mountain (Spring 2013)

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UFO over Dolna Dikanya (8 august 2013)

We (me and my husband) were on our villa in Dolna Dikanya. My husband does not believe in UFO or in God. We were outside around 20:00 and we were smoking and talking. There is a small hill to the right that is called Radzovitca. Suddenly a UFO appeared from there - a bright light. We were horrified and stunned.

We watched these lights - they moved slowly, without noise, they were very bright. They passed over our house. They made rapid zigzag movement and my husband said that this was a UFO. He said it - he who don't believe in UFO!

We were not able to sleep that night from fear. We heard that neighbours have seen them too but no one is talking. On the next day a helicopter was circling there - I don't know if it had any connection to the UFO sighting. I think that military knows but they are silent too.

From that day my husband believes in UFO.

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I received this story from a young man in 2013:

I think it was 2006 - I was on holiday in Burgas in the summer. My dad was out to a restaurant with a friend but I was not feeling well and I stayed at the room. I turned on the TV. At one time I went out to the terrace. I looked at the sky. It was beautiful and I felt very good. There was a tall hotel building in front of me. Suddenly something like light emerged behind the hotel. I did not pay attention because I thought it was a helicopter. But then for just a second a lot of new thoughts crossed my mind. Thoughts which I never imagined that I would think. Then I realised that the object had no typical movement of a helicopter or an airplane. It was silent and moved like a car with a drunk driver - you can not predict the course of its movement. These are some of the thoughts I mentioned:

"I did not realize that God could have created everything, not only for people because the earth is only a very small section of the entire cosmos. Like pin between the needles"

This fluttered in my mind very quickly. Immediately I ran home and I took my camera and started shooting. Here comes the surprise - in the pictures ther was only the sky. Naked sky, nothing else. I saw the camera focusing on the object and it was right in the frame but the picture showed only naked sky. I was dumbfounded, I was scared, I looked up and I saw part of it passes over the building. It was something like three knotted balloons that change color and rotate. The colors were blue, yellow, green , etc. but I was in shock and could not remember them all. Since then I know we are not alone in space. I do not feel surprise but rather awe.

Mysterious places in Bulgaria: Markova mekhana

The remains of the fortress Markova mekhana (bulgarian: Маркова механа) are located 600 meters from the pass Gate of Trajan. More often this fortress and the whole place are called "Gate of Trajan" too. It dates from the time of the Roman empire. In ancient times it was called Stipon. Archeological excavations took place there in 1975.

Years before the excavations people from villages Gorno Varshilo and Dolno Varshilo were passing near the remains of the ancient fortress on their way to cities of Kostenetz, Samokov and Ihtiman where they were selling their production of grapes and cherries. Near the fortress, when it got dark, people started to hear some strange hissing. In the villages people started to talk that these noises are made by samodivas.

In the folklore samodivas are unearthly beautiful creatures, but in most cases hostile to people. They live in the mountains and only come out at night in the woods and on the roads. They can enchant passengers. Therefore the inhabitants of the two villages were very careful when they were passing near the Gate of Trajan.

After the excavations, hissing stops. It is assumed that it was caused by a vortex of air in a semi-open tunnel, which has been blocked by the other side.

The area itself has a very bloody history. The Gate of Trajan is one of the few passages between the field of Sofia and the Upper Trakia Valley. Therefore, all rulers fiercely defended the pass, starting from the Thracian tribe Bessi. After them Romans and Byzantines were the next to rule this pass. It is believed that the passage is named after the emperor Trajan.

Here in 986 bulgarian tzar Samuil defeated the Byzantine army. Here for 7 years, Bulgarians hold against Ottoman invasion. The countless hordes of Ottoman turks finally managed to capture the Bulgarian fortress but many of them died.

In the winter of 1443-1444 the crusaders of Vladislav Varnenchik reached the Gate of Tajan in his first campaign against the Turks. The next year he decided to go through Northern Bulgaria, knowing very well how difficult it is to capture this passage. 

In the time of the Ottoman Empire the passage is full of bandits. Nothing helped against them neither quartered Turkish army garrison, nor that Bulgarian villages Klissura (now extinct) and Vetren who were exempted from some of the taxes to the Empire in exchange for guarding the pass against bandits. Ultimately during the Middle Ages, the pass was abandoned because of banditry and people began to use the way through Momin prohod, Kostenetz and Belovo.

In 1877-1878 in the passage of Trajan, Turks dug trenches and were preparing for a decisive battle againt the Russian army, but because of the disorganization and panic they fled to Pazardzhik giving this strategic area without a fight.

Are the ghosts of all who died there still haunting this place?

The area has another peculiarity. In 1969 a small plane fell there. Rescuers were looking four days for it. It turns out that there is an "air hole" over this place. Since then, planes do not fly over there. So It can be called the "Bulgarian Bermuda Triangle."

Most of the information for this material is taken from the book of Miho Tchervenkov - "City of  Kostenetz and the valley. Book One: from antiquity to 1878."

I live in this region, and I know about some of the things described in the book of Miho Tchervenkov, but others were new even for me. Still for others I have different information. I have heard that the "air hole" is not over the Trajan Gate, but near the village of Verinsko. During the communist era a grain warehouse was built there so in case of a war with Western world, it would be hard for the enemy aircrafts to bomb it. But maybe I am wrong or there are two "air holes" - over Verinsko and over The Gate of Trajan.

Finally some pictures of the fortress Markova Mekhana from Wikipedia: