Places Sam O'Brien Wants to Go

This small window display is dedicated to the noble carrot.

The Belgian library displays burned books that were salvaged from the fires of both world wars.

A wonderfully kitsch bookstore the size of a supermarket.

Because sometimes you need to make a batch of frites even when the stores are all closed.

The bronzed skull of a beheaded traitor was affixed to the city gate in the 17th century.

Museum covers every step of the chocolate-making process, from cultivation to the finished product.

Rare wooden escalators lead deep down into an otherwise staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel.

A Museum of Psychiatry in a still-operating mental institution.

Medical history with an amazing, if frighting, collection of wax diseases on display.

This former Masonic lodge has been transformed into part museum, part bar, all awesome.

This bar is filled with Star Wars merchandise from around the world, all of it unlicensed knockoffs.

For almost a century, this East Village newsstand has served egg creams to beats, hippies, punks, and everything in between.

Hidden behind a wall, Spanish nuns distribute their signature sweets on a revolving tray.

Walk through a clothing store, across a courtyard, and up several flights of stairs for delicious coffee with a side of beautiful views.

In 2013, historians discovered a hidden room devoted to the art of making royals' hot chocolate.

Come for the pizza, stay for a performance on the world's largest theater pipe organ.

At this sweet shop, the descendants of a royal chef serve up the fudge-like dessert his ancestor invented for a king.

“It's the quality” (but probably also the drive-through donut tunnel) that has attracted diners since 1968.

This centuries-old pub boasts a collection of more than 4,500 snippets of neckties from around the world.

This quirky museum celebrates the history of a local cod fishing industry.

The world's largest underwater restaurant is submerged off the southern tip of Norway.

A 22-million-year-old sandstone cave is a natural habitat for award-winning cheese.

Some of the best Persian food in New York comes from the front window of an unassuming pizza shop.

A former connection to City Island, it has been abandoned since the 1930s.