Places vanessabrown Wants to Go

A small but hugely whimsical theater where marionettes play out the "The Battle of Stalingrad."

The secret room where early Bolsheviks cranked out propaganda fliers on a smuggled printing press.

Luxury hotel turned into a refugee camp, then turned back into a luxury hotel.

Unusual building appears to be haphazardly built from randomly piled bricks.

The charmingly disheveled clock tower of Tbilisi's puppet theater.

Hundreds of intricately carved Armenian stone crosses can be found within this huge cemetery.

Despite producing just a handful of movies, a brave and lyrical filmmaker has an entire museum dedicated to him.

The luxurious circular mansion built for a Communist leader now lies abandoned.

The world's longest nonstop reversible cable car soars through spectacular scenery to the medieval Tatev Monastery.

Giant stone letters dedicated to the founder of Armenia's alphabet.

Nestled in a peaceful valley, this Armenian monastery may have been saved from Mongols thanks to the eyes of God.

This ancient monastery complex was transformed from an island to a peninsula when the lake was partially drained.

Centuries before the modern seismograph, Armenian monks measured quakes with this tilting pillar.

This series of Armenian caves held the oldest brain, shoe, and winery in the world.

She asked for a potato cellar and over the next 23 years he gave her a network of holy caves.

This Armenian monastery was carved out of cliffs and named after the spear used to stab Jesus.

The most visited pilgrimage site in Armenia once held a saint in a pit for 13 years.

This striking icon of the disputed Republic of Artsakh caused a stir at a Eurovision Song Contest.

Right up until the 20th century this network of man-made caves was the biggest village in Eastern Armenia.

Something's watching you.

Thousands of slain Soviet soldiers are buried within the shadow of this enormous obelisk.

This Slovak bridge is known both for its connection to a national uprising and its UFO-shaped eatery.

This Slovakian statue of an emerging sewer worker might just be a bronze peeping tom.

This spaceship sculpture in the middle of the Slovakian capital looks like it just crash-landed.