Places stonoceno Wants to Go

A striking Soviet memorial commemorates the liberation of Belarus from the Nazis.

A small museum in this border city displays the contraband art that has been stolen back from smugglers.

Remains of the old fortification along the Western border of the USSR, now an elaborate defense museum.

This rare collection of human deformities displays fetuses with two faces, one eye, and "mermaid" legs.

Thanks to its heroic service during WWII this Soviet castle has been turned into a monument towered over by a brutalist titan.

A museum of tiny buildings in the tiny country of Andorra.

This ominous Albanian fortress houses tanks and downed planes as a reminder of their victories over Western imperialism.

Gigantic water vessel, permanently grounded in Southern Albania.

The elliptical citadel resisted the advance of the mighty Ottomans several times, thanks to the military prowess of the "Dragon of Albania."

What happens when you cross a mayor and a painter?

Hundreds of thousands of concrete bunkers crowd Albania long after the fall of Communism.

An Albanian monument to the Communism that nearly crushed the country is now a crumbling wreck.

A naturally beautiful, seemingly bottomless deep blue spring.

This little town supplies Japan with most of its calligraphy brushes, still made by hand from animal fur.

A remote and slightly overgrown park filled with replicas of world landmarks.

A collection of more than 1,000 teddies from nearly any profession.

This temple is steeped in local folklore involving a teakettle and a raccoon dog.

This ancient shrine has been rebuilt every 20 years since the eighth century.

These Japanese ruins have been brought back to life with elaborately recreated buildings.

A thick blanket of beautiful pampas grass cloaks this unique Japanese landscape.

Japan's largest collection of Western-style mansions in the port city of Kobe includes a recreation of Sherlock Holmes' 221B Baker Street quarters.

This little known mountain has claimed four times as many lives as Everest.

This historic hydroelectric power plant in Japan has been preserved and is open to the public.

An eerie maze of industrial factories looks like something out of a dystopian sci-fi.