St. Augustine, Florida
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When it comes to all things paranormal, I consider myself to be a huge believer. Just because we can't visually see something or don't fully understand it doesn't mean it ceases to exist -- and I'm more than convinced that ghosts are very real. Especially since I'm positive that I was hit on (yes, hit on) by the ghost of a fallen soldier while visiting America's oldest city -- Saint Augustine, Florida.

It was a few years ago, and my husband and I were enjoying a few kid-free days in the historic city right before the holidays. We stayed at the Hilton St. Augustine Bayfront, in a lovely room with a balcony overlooking the water -- directly across from the Castillo de San Marcos, which is an old fort dating from the 1600s.

And while many tourists visit the fort each year, most of them don't realize that when they're strolling the grounds of the property, they're actually walking on top of the graves of hundreds of soldiers who were killed in front of the fort -- and were buried right there.

More from The Stir: I Saw REAL Paranormal Activity on My Baby's Video Monitor

For the majority of our time in St. Augustine, things in our room at the Hilton remained fairly quiet. Nothing seemed remotely unsettling or out of the ordinary -- until my husband left early one morning to return to Connecticut, leaving me in our hotel room all alone. 

And I kid you not -- the minute he walked through the door into the hotel hallway and I heard it shut behind him -- the energy in the room immediately changed. At that point I simply KNEW that I was not alone in the room, and my pulse started racing at the realization that someone (or something) was standing over the bed watching me.

If the eerie feeling alone wasn't enough to convince me that a ghostly presence was making itself known -- all of a sudden, something bumped into the bed, making it shake. It was as if someone had tried to walk past the bed, but walked right into it by mistake -- sort of bumping the edge.

And it was at that point I put two and two together and realized that whoever this spirit was had waited to make an entrance until after my husband left -- which led me to believe it was one of the dead soldiers from across the way at the Castillo -- and he was obviously looking for a little bit of action. Even though I couldn't see him, I could feel him next to me -- and he scared me so bad that I quickly gathered up my things and checked out of the hotel as fast as I could. I mean, I guess I was flattered that a dead dude decided to stop by and hit on me, but I wasn't about to stick around and see just how far he wanted to take things.

As for the Hilton, I definitely wouldn't hesitate to stay there again -- but not without my husband to ward off potential ghostly suitors.

Have you ever stayed in a haunted hotel?

 

Read last week's installment: I Saw REAL Paranormal Activity on My Baby's Video Monitor

Image via Gregory Moine/Flickr