A faux desert landscape in the middle of the jungle that sprouts oases during the rainy season.

Beautiful public park off the beaten path and away from tourists.

This stunning Brazilian library contains the largest collection of Portuguese texts outside of Portugal itself.

An abandoned set from the 1980 film "Popeye," claimed and repurposed as a theme park by creative locals.

The 19th-century pharmacy (now a used bookstore) was featured in James Joyce’s "Ulysses," and has changed very little to this day.

A statue in the center of Dublin dedicated to one of their favorite sons of rock & roll.

The modern birthplace of Irish freedom.

More than 5,000 artifacts donated by the people of the city, plus a room entirely devoted to the band U2.

The somber sculptures commemorating Irish Famine on the river Liffey in Dublin.

This courtly monument celebrates an influential comedian who turned taking the piss out of the powers-that-be into an art.

This Irish museum in a historic 19th century market pays tribute to the glory of butter.

Dublin's "Dead Zoo" serves as a window to Victorian museum design.

A corkscrew-shaped barn in Ireland.

This permanent collection of preserved bodies taken from Irish bogs is one of the leading authorities on such morbid mummies.

One of Ireland's most infamous prisons for rebels including men, women and children.

The gorgeous library at Trinity College is home to remarkable treasures of Irish identity.

Twisted girders are all that remain of an Icelandic bridge that was wiped out by a combination of volcanic heat and glacial floods.

The picturesque birthplace of Icelandic democracy is drenched in the blood of its brutal past.

This stunning concert hall has become a symbol of Iceland's national recovery.

A formerly glacier-tipped volcano that inspired none other than Jules Verne.

If a glacial river suddenly diving into a sheer chasm via a dramatic, multi-stage waterfall isn't peak Iceland, it's certainly close.

This valley of hot springs and boiling mud pots is home to the record-holding "Geysir," which originated the English word.

A winding, blood-red tunnel of hardened lava navigable by foot.

This natural Icelandic fissure allows divers to swim right between two volatile tectonic plates.