Roses are red, violets are blue (yada, yada, yada). Some of us are single, and we’ve taken advantage of the bestselling Atlas Obscura to plot a perfect anti-Valentine’s Day trip. Luckily for our fellow singletons, we’re sharing the good news. Here are 9 places in the book that really speak to us right now. Happy travels.
1. Take a tour of the Museum of Broken Relationships.
Prague, Czech Republic
You may be unlucky in love, but you’re not alone.
2. Visit the Good Vibrations Antique Vibrator Museum.
San Francisco, CA, United States
Self-explanatory.
3. Take comfort in the Cat Museum.
Kuching, Malaysia
Cats will never turn on you.
4. Go on a polar cruise to Bouvet Island.
Bouvet Island, Dependency of Norway
Nothing says “leave me alone!!” like heading to the most remote island on Earth.
5. Plan a trip to Museo Galileo to see Galileo’s middle finger.
Florence, Italy
When viewed listening to Beyonce’s “Sorry,” it’s like Galileo is the newest member of your crew.
(Tell him, boy, bye, boy, bye, middle fingers up I ain’t thinking ’bout you)
6. Investigate the Museum of Human Disease.
Sydney, Australia
Scientific backup for your developing “WHO NEEDS HUMAN INTERACTION? HUMAN INTERACTION BREEDS NOTHING BUT DISEASE AND HEARTBREAK” theory.
7. Let Mumtaz Begum tell your fortune.
Karachi, Pakistan
Get the lowdown on those tinder matches from an (albeit charlatan) prophet.
8. Explore the Museum of Medieval Torture.
San Gimignano, Italy
Fodder for your daydreams about your ex.
9. Drive by the Amityville Horror House.
Amityville, NY, United States
However bad that ex was, be happy it wasn’t Ronald J. DeFeo, Jr.
Want more ideas? Check out the book.
About the Book:
It’s time to get off the beaten path. Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust,Atlas Obscura celebrates over 700 of the strangest and most curious places in the world.
Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that’s so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan’s 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England.
Created by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton, Atlas Obscura revels in the weird, the unexpected, the overlooked, the hidden and the mysterious. Every page expands our sense of how strange and marvelous the world really is. And with its compelling descriptions, hundreds of photographs, surprising charts, maps for every region of the world, it is a book to enter anywhere, and will be as appealing to the armchair traveler as the die-hard adventurer.
Anyone can be a tourist. Atlas Obscura is for the explorer.
Buy the Book
Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | Workman
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