Places MeanderingMind Wants to Go

Menacing or in memoriam, the Silent People and their meaning are left to interpretation.

Legend has this precariously placed rock was placed by giants. Science has another explanation.

Rent out a glass igloo to watch the Northern Lights like you live in the future.

A mountain pass in Bulgaria's Balkan Mountains was the site of four historic battles.

Outstanding, eerie frescoes and decorations fill this 19th-century monastery.

In a long-dry lake bed, these groups of massive stone pillars bear a striking resemblance to clumps of everyone's favorite fungi.

A flamboyant five-story building in Bulgaria resembles a crawling snail.

A Bulgarian monument to Russia's role in World War II is constantly being painted in pop culture protest.

This tiny Bulgarian town offers a stunning location in the mountains and a storied history.

This massive concrete sculpture is said to be the heaviest communist monument on Earth.

Bizarrely shaped rock formations in northwest Bulgaria come with equally bizarre legends.

An architectural marvel that spans the Arda River, and has stories of a haunted past.

The medieval "dragon" on an Austrian city's coat-of-arms comes to life in a fountain.

Vienna's diversity-themed traffic lights were inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest.

Austria's very first and only nuclear power station was completed but never used.

Part ski resort, part modern art space, this lodge brings giant metal spiders and bloody doors to the Austrian Alps.

This outsider art house has gone from clinical creation to astounding artwork.

This spire on an Austrian mountain is wrapped around a long spiral slide and has the world's tallest wooden observation deck.

The world's oldest known salt mine.

"World machine" built by an untrained Austrian farmer.

Visitors dip into a variety of pools of what was once ice.

A centuries old castle atop a dormant volcano houses museums devoted to both women and witches.

Behind the pink curtain, Au Bonheur du Jour, an art gallery of erotic archives.

A favorite Paris bar for U.S. expats, including Gershwin, Hemingway, and James Bond.