This celebration of Latvia’s freedom and independence avoided demolition over half a century of Soviet occupation.

This ornate church has survived Nazi and Soviet occupation, including a short stint as a Soviet-era gymnasium and cinema.

This former Nazi labor camp is now a poignant memorial, complete with giant Soviet-style monuments.

This impressively complicated radioastronomy research center was once a tool of Soviet spies.

Guests become prisoners on a visit to Latvian prison.

Latvia's symbolic mountain-shaped national library is home to millions of cultural tomes.

The widest waterfall in Europe is a natural wonder and one of the only places where fish are caught in the air.

Surreal works of unreal stone and metal dot the landscape of this Latvian art park.

A black cat protests the City Guild in Riga's Old Town.

A top secret Cold War bunker hidden beneath a Latvian spa facility is now open for tours.

South Dakota's oldest operating brewery is housed inside a historic firehouse.

Mysteriously stacked storefront paths give this medieval British town an iconic style like none other.

Each year a new straw behemoth is born.

This bridge is the first to be made entirely from iron, but designed like it was still made of wood.

England's most notorious suicide spot.

The rotting skeleton of a shoreside fun fair that was destroyed by fire and storms still haunts the Brighton ocean view.

The fanciest public restroom in New York City boasts fresh flowers, art, and a classical music soundtrack.

A modern zoetrope on the New York City subway.

A beautiful and moving memorial set on a little island in the middle of the river in Minsk.

The apartment building where JFK's assassin lived after defecting to the Soviet Union.

Glowing orb in Minsk houses 8,600,000 items.

This Minsk museum has cat coffee, cat chess, cat art, and even a cat "staff," which visitors are free to take home.

An empty relic of the Moscow Olympics crumbles away in Estonia's capital.

The ruins of an Estonian prison are drowning in the quarry lake where the convicts were once forced to work.