Paul Dale Roberts

The haunted Oriental Express

April 14, 2013 |  1 comment
Image Credit: Paul Dale Roberts The Orient Express is a legendary long distance international passenger train railway service that ran from 1883 to 2009 and was operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Even though it is discontinued, the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service continues to run to this present day. In 1974, I was in Paris, France and visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Tomb and the Triumphal Arch. I also made sure I rode on the Orient Express, that traveled from Paris, France to Istanbul, Turkey. Even though I was on the Orient Express for a short time, it was an honor to be on such a legendary train. The reason why this legendary train service is called the Orient Express is because Turkey is considered as part of the Orient, so therefore the train that went from Paris to Istanbul was given the name the Orient Express. Your greatest literature, movies and TV shows talk about famous icons and dignitaries from Dracula to Hercule Poirot to James Bond to Sir Harry Paget Flashman to the 102 Dalmatians have been on the Orient Express.

I received a report from Michael Jayson Hodges. Michael is 72 years old and tells me his experience on the Orient Express. Here is his email:

"Paul, I am not sure if you about the Orient Express, it may be before your time, but during my days in the Army, I rode on the Orient Express, it’s a memory that will be with me for a long time. It was 1967 and I was enjoying a bit of R&R and my German girlfriend Hilda took me on this adventurous train ride. As we went through Budapest, I was looking out the window. It must have been about 1400 Hours, sometime in mid-August. There were a few Cumulus clouds in the sky. I noticed that one of these fluffy clouds seemed to be tremendous in size and it seemed to rotate. I told Hilda about it. I told her: "Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Is that cloud rotating?" Hilda looked at it and confirmed that it seemed that the cloud was rotating. We kept our eye on the cloud and then all of a sudden about 15 tiny golden spheres shot out of the cloud and were going in all different directions. It happened so fast, when the spheres shot out, they were out of eye shot in a matter of 3 seconds, if you weren’t watching the cloud, you would have never seen this crazy sky show. I have never seen anything like this in my whole life." Michael.

Before I close this article, I remember when I was on this legendary train, a couple told me that the Orient Express was haunted by a little blonde haired girl, nicknamed Strasbourg Gelbes Haar which means: Strasbourg Yellow Hair. Supposingly, a little blonde haired girl in 1903 fell from the moving train in Strasbourg. She wanted to feel the wind and instead fell to her death from this moving train. Some passengers reported seeing the little blonde girl ghost in the restrooms and it would scare them to death. The Strasbourg Gelbes Haar haunted the train for about 5 years. A gypsy woman cleansed the train and the phantom disappeared forever or went into the light. [!gad]The Orient Express is a legendary long distance international passenger train railway service that ran from 1883 to 2009 and was operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Even though it is discontinued, the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service continues to run to this present day. In 1974, I was in Paris, France and visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Tomb and the Triumphal Arch. I also made sure I rode on the Orient Express, that traveled from Paris, France to Istanbul, Turkey. Even though I was on the Orient Express for a short time, it was an honor to be on such a legendary train. The reason why this legendary train service is called the Orient Express is because Turkey is considered as part of the Orient, so therefore the train that went from Paris to Istanbul was given the name the Orient Express. Your greatest literature, movies and TV shows talk about famous icons and dignitaries from Dracula to Hercule Poirot to James Bond to Sir Harry Paget Flashman to the 102 Dalmatians have been on the Orient Express.

I received a report from Michael Jayson Hodges. Michael is 72 years old and tells me his experience on the Orient Express. Here is his email:

"Paul, I am not sure if you about the Orient Express, it may be before your time, but during my days in the Army, I rode on the Orient Express, it’s a memory that will be with me for a long time. It was 1967 and I was enjoying a bit of R&R and my German girlfriend Hilda took me on this adventurous train ride. As we went through Budapest, I was looking out the window. It must have been about 1400 Hours, sometime in mid-August. There were a few Cumulus clouds in the sky. I noticed that one of these fluffy clouds seemed to be tremendous in size and it seemed to rotate. I told Hilda about it. I told her: "Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Is that cloud rotating?" Hilda looked at it and confirmed that it seemed that the cloud was rotating. We kept our eye on the cloud and then all of a sudden about 15 tiny golden spheres shot out of the cloud and were going in all different directions. It happened so fast, when the spheres shot out, they were out of eye shot in a matter of 3 seconds, if you weren’t watching the cloud, you would have never seen this crazy sky show. I have never seen anything like this in my whole life." Michael.

Before I close this article, I remember when I was on this legendary train, a couple told me that the Orient Express was haunted by a little blonde haired girl, nicknamed Strasbourg Gelbes Haar which means: Strasbourg Yellow Hair. Supposingly, a little blonde haired girl in 1903 fell from the moving train in Strasbourg. She wanted to feel the wind and instead fell to her death from this moving train. Some passengers reported seeing the little blonde girl ghost in the restrooms and it would scare them to death. The Strasbourg Gelbes Haar haunted the train for about 5 years. A gypsy woman cleansed the train and the phantom disappeared forever or went into the light. Comments (1)

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