This story may be a little bit lame and it is not at all 'scary' but it is somewhat interesting so I thought I would post it.
I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the first world war, on December 6th 1917, two ships carrying ammunition collided in our Harbour (the second largest natural harbour in the world). The resulting explosion was the largest man-made detonation in history until the nuclear bomb came along. Thousands of people were killed and the city was all but leveled. As a result my city is known as one of the most haunted places in North America.
One of the places that is renowned for ghost sightings is a restaurant called "The Five Fishermen" where I worked for about a year in my early 20's as a dish dog. The building itself was used as a morgue for the victims of the Halifax explosion and later the Titanic. It was also, for a time, a funeral home. (side note: The church across the street has the figure of a man imprinted in one of the windows, the window glass has been replaced several times in the past hundred years but the figure always returns.) Many co-workers of mine had claimed to see things at one time or another - a man in early 20th century garb walking through a mirror in the dining hall, pots and pans flying from the racks, etc. The building has been on more than one television series.
Anyway, I wish I had more of an interesting encounter but mine is kind of dull...
It was late one night, almost mid-night. The manager and I were the only people left in the building. She was in the office upstairs and in the back and I was cleaning the kitchen. I had just finished sweeping when I realized I had forgotten the dust pan in the prep room about 20 feet away. I set the broom against the wall, absently, and it fell over. I didn't bother picking it up because I was coming right back. I walked into the prep room, grabbed the dust pan, and returned to the part of the kitchen where I had left the broom - only now the broom was propped back up against the wall.
Super lame for a ghost story, I know! But I didn't put that broom back up against the wall and there was no way my manager could have done it.
Follow this link to see a picture of the building taken in 1917 surrounded by caskets following the Halifax Explosion. There's also more to read on this page about the history of the building.
Http://fivefishermen.com/history/
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I like to think there might be a more scientific explanation for ghostly phenomenon. If we are mostly water and our atmosphere is mostly water and our brains operate via electricity, maybe past consciousness could have left an imprint. The imprint may be able to manifest itself to our senses in different ways; we might hear a noise, see an aparition, smell or taste something, even feel someone touch us or a presence with us in the room. This is our brain registering, interpreting, and translating these signals -- or 'after currents' -- into something it recognizes. The only thing this doesn't explain are situations like my broom experience, where the physical world is effected in a deliberate way by an unkown force. Another pit-fall of this theory is that it does not allow for much sentient interaction between the physical world and the after-life, as millions of people claim to have experienced
I totally endorse Hali to anyone planning a trip, especially if you're into the paranormal. There are tons of inn's and hotels in the city that are said to be haunted and even a ghost-tour in the summer (though it's kind of lame). There's a lot of history here but make sure you come during summer, as Charles Dickens once wrote - " (Halifax) was a curiosity of bleak dullness.":) He must have been here between October - June, it's pretty much all one season of crap.