Taxi #45

The horror stories that we hear about taxicabs are those done by malefactors who abuse their passengers by overcharging, hold-up, and rape. But not this anecdote about Taxi #45 which is an urban myth from Davao City.

On a late night, a female hailed a cab to ferry her home. The moment she boarded the taxi she felt uneasy, something was off. To dismiss her anxiety, she engaged in a small talk with the driver so blah…blah until she noticed that there was no response. The driver just remained silent and unmoved.

Upon reaching home, she reached for the wallet to pay her fare. She handed over the money to the driver and was petrified to see his face was deformed with blood all over the body. She was aghast and immediately ran out of the vehicle. she turned around near her gate but the taxi was nowhere in sight.

The incident was reported to authorities but there was no record of Taxi #45 and the driver can’t be traced.

Source: https://expat.com.ph/

Haunted Kremlin

Apparently, Moscow’s Kremlin is haunted and former tsars and leaders still wander the corridors.It has been noted that apparitions of Nicholas the Second usually foreshadow impending disaster. Ivan the Terrible still lurks about too. He is occasionally spotted on the bell tower and people have reported that they have heard his footsteps. 

The story goes he can’t find peace even as a ghost because he killed his own son, a deed that still haunts him in his afterlife. Even Lenin has been sighted, although his spirit was seen by several people while he was alive, but unable to walk. He died three months after the sighting.

Source: https://theculturetrip.com/

Metro 2 – Tales of Moscow’s underground

Moscow’s vast metro is shrouded in urban legends and conspiracy theories. One suggests that the circle line was a happy accident that arose when Stalin put his coffee cup on the mass transit system’s plans. 

The cup stained, and on consideration the engineers thought a circle line would be a smart addition. Apparently there are huge radioactive rats that live in the metro tunnels too. One of the biggest legends, however, is that deep underneath the metro system that millions of Moscovites use each day is another metro system, even further down. 

Metro 2, as it is referred to, is said to be bigger than the other metro system and connects the Kremlin to the KGB headquarters to Moscow State University, to the government airport, as well as towns outside of Moscow.

Source: https://theculturetrip.com/

Why Verebinsky Bypass is also called the Tsar’s Finger

Some say the Verebinsky Bypass – the seemingly pointless, semi-circular detour on the otherwise straight train line between St. Petersburg and Moscow – can literally be traced back to Tsar Nicholas the First. Keeping in line with European development, the tsar decided to lay down train track to connect his nation’s first and second cities in the mid-1800s. 

Engineers on the project argued over the best route, and Nicholas the First grew frustrated at them. Apparently he seized the map and drew a straight line between the two cities and declared that that was where the tracks were to be laid. 

In autocratic imperial Russia, tsar’s word is law, and so the engineers went about building a railway path exactly how the tsar drew it: in a straight line, except for the little bump where the tsar had drawn over the tip of his finger in haste. Because of this, the bypass’s nickname is the Tsar’s Finger. In 2001 the kink was removed (150 years later).

Source: https://theculturetrip.com/