Once the home of a hermetic monk, this cave now houses a small church.

A series of caves under Castle Hill that once held the prisoner Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula.

This Hungarian castle was built out of cardboard and wood until it proved so popular that it got upgraded to stone.

A trail of iron footwear stands as a monument to the thousands executed along this riverbank during WWII.

A 19th century artistocrat's mansion, turned into a library, hidden in a modern library.

An otherworldly alpine pasture with its own unique microculture that recalls Middle Earth.

Mai Tais and Navy Grog served up in one of the original tiki bars.

One of the last remaining Carpenter Gothic churches is situated on a wildflower conservatory overlooking the bay.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.

This (occupied) house is 10 feet wide and full of spite.

Travelers exchange letters with woodland creatures at this mini post office.

An "anarchical" no man's land, complete with garbage sculptures and a hobo-run "Landfillian Library."

A storybook European village in Berkeley.

An amazing collection of fantastic reptiles, amphibians, spiders, and insects.

This restaurant offers the original California cuisine.

The only museum of sake in the United States is nestled in an unlikely California college town.

A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

Every Sunday, this Thai temple in Berkeley serves a backyard brunch.

A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.

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

Train debris from the deadliest avalanche in United States history can still be found in the ravine where so many perished.

The site of the Wellington avalanche, one of the America's worst railroad disasters.