Places Ell Hughes Wants to Go

A whimsical sensor instrument for Minneapolitans to play on their walks to work.

The oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia has survived centuries of invasions, political shifts, and religious purges.

Citizens of Norway want to gift the peak of Mount Halti to Finland for its 100th birthday.

The best place in New York to pick up the controversial, notoriously foul-smelling Asian "king of fruits."

Of all the origin stories for weed's secret code, this one likely has the goods.

This small town in Germany was once a center of peppermint production, and has the museum to prove it.

A stranded woman lived alone on this remote island for 18 years, inspiring the great children's novel "Island of the Blue Dolphins."

The highest point in Belgium is a staircase to nowhere.

The masses at this church incorporate enough moonshine and animal sacrifice that they are no longer recognizably Catholic.

A Christian retreat founded to welcome refugees fleeing from the Nazis during World War II.

A magical work of architecture where a wind turbine enables monks to levitate.

No one knows who created the statues or if they are arranged properly—let alone the artwork's real name.

The nude sculpture on this fountain shocked conservative townsfolk when it was first unveiled, but not as much as the dead body found in it decades later.

A disconnected rotary phone for "calling" lost loved ones offered a unique way of dealing with grief in disaster-stricken Japan.

The largest piece of no man's land left on Earth.

Martin Bricelj Baraga's monolithic sculpture measures the blueness of the sky, and changes color to match it.

This lake in northwest Iran has started turning from green to red more frequently than scientists are comfortable with.

The oldest garden in Prague, once part of an medieval orchard.

The hidden lair of an alchemist rediscovered in a 2002 flood.

What looks like a suicide in progress is actually a statue of Sigmund Freud.

A 400-year-old mummified arm dangles from the ceiling of St. James the Greater, serving as a warning to thieves.

This tipsy office building in downtown Prague was originally called “Fred and Ginger.”

A turn of the century building boasting some of the most beautiful art nouveau architecture in Prague.

This Prague museum collects brutalist relics and memories from the country's former Soviet rule.