Places bystrov Wants to Go

An unassuming music museum recounts the rags to riches story of a dramatic Portuguese genre.

A 19th-century mansion houses the largest collection of gin in the European Union.

This abandoned five-star hotel is now a five-star urban exploration destination.

Europe's oldest still-operational tea farm also boasts a spectacular view.

A surreal pile of colorful junk fills a small yard in an otherwise gray neighborhood.

An incredibly random collection of wax figures is displayed in a shopping center walkway.

An art museum inside an active factory.

Perhaps the tiniest sculpture in Saint Petersburg is a little bronze finch inspired by a song.

A small and surprising passageway in Saint Petersburg devoted to the Beatles.

A city block packed with whimsical sculptures that seem to be plucked from a tiled fantasy world.

An unusual collection of self-made musical instruments and unique noises.

A scale model of Russia so big visitors are offered binoculars to rent so they can see the whole thing.

This Russian museum stresses the importance of keeping clean and even holds one of Pavlov's dogs.

Specimens collected by the author of "Lolita" and self-taught lepidopterist are exhibited in his childhood home.

An ever-growing literary collection housed in the apartment where the Russian author penned his final novel.

A 250-year-old timepiece-automaton adorned with golden mechanical birds, which still sing to this day.

The past, present, and future of Russia's signature alcohol is remembered in the world's only museum dedicated to the starchy spirit.

The oldest museum in Russia is home to a fascinating collection of nearly two million anthropological artifacts and anatomical curiosities.

Hitler's bleak vision of relaxation still stands as a mostly abandoned 10,000-room resort complex.

A long spiraling walkway winds through the woods, and around a copper beech tree at the center.

A slice of central Asia in the middle of Berlin.

Started as a kitchen garden, now the second largest botanical garden in the world.

The fairy tale castle of the “fairy-tale king,” this was also the inspiration for Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty.”

This futuristic German spa allows visitors to float in a pool of salt water while zoning out to underwater techno.