Autumn can be pretty spooky with its rain and short, dark days. Let’s visit some places which will give us a good scare.

Nagoro – a Doll Village
Nagoro is a village in Japan with only about 40 inhabitants. Young people move to cities and the old ones die. A local artist had an idea to replace every dead inhabitant with a life-size doll. Some dolls even resemble the dead people. Visitors can see kids in the class and old people sitting in front of their houses or working in the field. There are about 350 dolls made of straw and dressed in real clothes.

The Church of Bones
The Sedlec Ossuary is just a small chapel in Sedlec, Czech Republic – at least from outside it is. When you go inside, you‘ll see something unique. It is a place where everything is made from bones. Over 40,000 people have been buried here over the centuries. The chapel is decorated with bones, skulls, and skeletons. There are ornaments, a coat of arms, and even a chandelier made from bones. The architect even wrote his name in bones.

Whitby – a Town Where Dracula Was Born
We all know that Vlad Tepes, called Dracula, was born in Transylvania. However, Bram Stoker, the author of the novel, Dracula, got the idea in Whitby, England. When he went there on holiday, he was already planning his vampire novel, but it was there that he discovered the story of Vlad in a local library. And it was there that he found the famous ruins as well as the names of his book characters. Where exactly? In the cemetery, of course.

Task
• Write a list of top scary places in your country.
• What makes places scary? Name two places you’re too scared to visit.

Jana Chrtianska