From the creepy confines of the Island of Dolls to an abandoned city in the Ukraine, an intriguing look at the world's weirdest tourist destinations.
The World’s Weirdest Tourist Destinations: Island of the Dolls, Mexico
La Isla de la Munecas, or the Island of the Dolls, is without a doubt one of the weirdest tourist destinations in the world. Located in Mexico City, eerie dolls of the dismembered, clownish and blackened variety, hang off almost all the trees on the island.
The story behind the bizarre attraction revolves around a hermit, Don Julian Santana, who was haunted by the ghost of a young girl that apparently drowned in the surrounding canals. He purportedly placed the dolls around the island as talismans to ward off her spirit.
Catacombs Of Paris, France
The Catacombs of Paris is an underground maze-like burial site stuffed with the skulls and bones of Parisians dating from the 1700s. The tunnels and crypts were built to house the bones of the deceased when cemeteries around the city became too packed. Between 1786 and 1788, the city cemeteries were emptied and the Catacombs overstuffed. To date, they house roughly six to seven million Parisian skeletons, and attract numerous tourists.
The Weirdest Tourist Destinations: Bubblegum Alley, California
In downtown San Luis Obispo, California, tourists are flock to the disgustingly intriguing Bubblegum Alley. True to its name, the 15-foot high, 70-foot long alley is covered with chewed gum, and is thought to have begun as a competition between two rival high schools. The wall was cleaned twice in the 70s for being unsanitary, but has escaped any further cleaning, and stands today as an alluring tourist attraction.
Pripyat, Ukraine
Pripyat is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine that once housed the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. When the city was populated, in 1970, it housed around 50,000 citizens. However, after the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986, when the power plant exploded, contaminating the town with radioactive material, the city was evacuated.
Currently, the city and its Zone of Alienation are bordered with guards and police. However, guided tours are available for those who want to visit, though only decrepit buildings and expansive destruction greets visitors.
This is the second in a two part post on the world’s weirdest tourist destinations — see the first part here, four totally bizarre tourist destinations.
