The Black and Gold Pittsburgh ghost tour was one of the best ghost tours I've experienced in a long time, and I've been on a lot of them. I'm a history/folklore enthusiast, and I like go on a local ghost tour whenever I'm in a new city. I think that ghost tours are one of the most interesting ways to learn about the history and culture of a location, and this ghost tour was not an exception.
Christina was an excellent tour guide. She was welcoming, accommodating, energetic, entertaining, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. She was like a friend showing us around the city, rather than just another tour guide. I appreciated that the tour focused mainly on history as well as the stories of people's experiences.
For the record, I'm not concerned with whether the stories are true or not. As the website states, ghost stories are history with a twist. Ghost stories matter, because they reflect the history, culture, and folklore of a region.
As historian and storyteller Jason Burns states, "Even if you don't believe in ghosts, when you hear a ghost story, you can learn things about how to live, how to be a good person, how to survive. Ghost stories aren't just ghost stories. Ghost stories are our history. They've just got a little bit extra in them, because the historical figures are still there, walking around." Burns also says that "Legends are just history begging to be remembered. So when you remember a ghost story, you're also remembering your ancestors, and everyone who came before you, and all the storytellers who have told stories about their country."
Thank you, Christina, for showing us another side of Pittsburgh, and for telling us so many entertaining stories about Pittsburgh's ancestors.