Cherry Blossom Tunnel, Germany
Each spring, a peaceful street, located in the German city of Bonn, transforms into an enchanting cherry blossom tunnel. Photographer Marcel Bednarz captured this stunning sight of cherry blossoms in full bloom. He explained to me that there are actually two streets in Bonn where cherry trees are planted, but the one you see in the above picture is called Heerstraße. As you may know, the average cherry blossom lasts only between 7 and 10 days, depending on weather conditions.

Tunnel of Love, Ukraine
The Ukrainian Tunnel of Love is actually a two-mile sector of private railway that serves a woodworking plant near Klevan, a small city located in western Ukraine. I read somewhere that couples pass through this romantic tunnel to make a wish. The myth goes that, if their love is strong and pure, the wish will come true.

Wisteria Tunnel, Japan
This stunning flower walkway is the known as the Wisteria Tunnel, situated in the Kawachi Fuji Garden. It really looks so peaceful to take a stroll through. The Wisteria Tunnel, which is part of a breathtaking display of botanical delights that include zen gardens and a cherry blossom festival, is located at the Kawachi Fuji Gardens in Kitakyushu. Different types and colors of wisteria have been woven through a cylindrical lattice that during the blooming months of April through May, become a fantastical flower-draped tunnel during the yearly “fuji matsuri”, or “Wisteria Festival”.

The Dark Hedges, Northern Ireland
Tucked away in the county of Antrim, these beautiful beech trees are thought to be around 300 years old. According to local records, James Stuart planted the 150 beech trees in the 18th century, to impress guests as they approached his splendid property, Gracehill House. Legend tells that the spirit of a maid, who lived in a neighboring mansion and died in mysterious circumstances hundreds of years ago, haunts the country road. “Grey Lady” silently floats along the road and quickly disappears as she reaches the last beech tree.

Silk Pupae
Beondegi (Silk Pupae) are a popular snack food in Korean cuisine. Beondegi are steamed or boiled silkworm pupae which are seasoned and eaten as a snack. Beondegi are often served by street vendors, as well as in restaurants and drinking establishments. They are also sold in cans in grocery stores and convenience stores.

Fried Spiders
Fried spider is a regional delicacy in Cambodia. In the Cambodian town of Skuon, the vending of fried spiders as a specialty snack is a popular attraction for tourists passing through this town. The spiders are bred in holes in the ground in villages north of Skuon, or foraged for in nearby forestland, and fried in oil. It is not clear how this practice started, but some have suggested that the population might have started eating spiders out of desperation during the years of Khmer Rouge rule, when food was in short supply.

Scorpions
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger. Typically served skewered on a stick either fried or dried, scorpions provide a bite of protein and according to traditional Chinese medicine, can help with arthritis symptoms.

Lutefisk
Lutefisk in Northern Norway and Southern Norway is a traditional dish of the Nordic countries. It is made from aged stockfish or dried/salted whitefish and lye.The first treatment is to soak the stockfish in cold water for five to six days (with the water changed daily). The saturated stockfish is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish swells during this soaking, and its protein content decreases by more than 50 percent producing a jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish (saturated with lye) has a pH value of 11–12 and is therefore caustic. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be cooked.

Alcon Blue Butterflies

Phengaris alcon, more commonly known as Alcon Blue or Alcon Large Blue, is a butterfly of theLycaenidae family and is found in Europe and Northern Asia. Alcon larvae leave the food plant when they have grown sufficiently (4th instar) and wait on the ground below to be discovered by ants. The larvae emit surface chemicals (allomones) that closely match those of ant larvae, causing the ants to carry the Alcon larvae into their nests and place them in their brood chambers, where they are fed by worker ants and where they devour ant larvae. When the Alcon larva is fully developed it pupates. Once the adult hatches it must run the gauntlet of escaping. The ants recognise the butterfly to be an intruder, but when they go to attack it with their jaws they can’t grab anything substantial as the newly emerged adult butterfly is thickly clothed in loosely attached scales.

Duck-Billed Platypus

The platypus is a semiaquatic mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. It is one of the few venomous mammals, the male platypus having a spur on the hind foot that delivers a venom capable of causing severe pain to humans. The body and the broad, flat tail of the platypus are covered with dense, brown fur that traps a layer of insulating air to keep the animal warm. The fur is waterproof, and the texture is akin to that of a mole. The platypus uses its tail for storage of fat reserves. They have a sense of electroreception: they locate their prey in part by detecting electric fields generated by muscular contractions. The platypus’ electroreception is the most sensitive of any monotreme.

Fishzilla
The snakeheads are members of the freshwater perciform fish family Channidae, native to Africa and Asia. These elongated, predatory fish are distinguished by a long dorsal fin, large mouth and shiny teeth. They breathe air with gills as well as with suprabranchial organs developing when they grow older, which is a primitive form of a labyrinth organ. The two extant genera are Channa in Asia and Parachanna in Africa, consisting of about 35 species.

Acacia trees
Acacia also known as a thorntree, whistling thorn or wattle, is a genus of shrubs. They are one of the most common types of plants in Africa and in Australia, but can be found around Mediterranean Europe and even in the US and Asia. They are impressive trees that can be very useful in producing medicine, gum or beautiful wood ornaments. Acacia seeds can be difficult to germinate. Research has found that immersing the seeds in various temperatures (usually around 80 °C) and manual seed coat chipping can improve yields to approximately 80 percent.

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Normally, you would expect delivery to follow two to three days of labor pain. It is also normal to have labor spasm diminishing over a period of time followed by another phase of relapse. But won’t you be stunned hearing the pain resuming after a period of forty-seven years? Well, that’s what had exactly happened to a Moroccan woman by the name of Zahra. In this context, it is worth noting that calcification of living fetus rarely occurs. Though such instances were few in number, there had been one odd instance of fetal calcification. Medically, the concept is referred to as lithopedion.

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However, Zahra’s case was strange enough to leave the medical fraternity shell shocked. The year was 1955, and Zahra was hardly in her twenty-sixth year. Similar to any other woman in the penultimate phase of pregnancy, Zahra came under the effect of birth pangs. In the nursing home she had a trying phase to go by. That’s because even after two days of painful labor, she was unable to deliver. As per the routine based regimen, caesarean process was recommended. But the woman decided otherwise. The sheer thought of operation put her in fright, and she decided the route of escape.

Unfortunately, things which were to follow were even more fearful than her fear and anticipation of death. Her pain did subside, but most surprisingly, following a long period of fifty years, she was found delivering a calcified piece of mass. She went into spasms of pain, but her family members were unable to discern the cause. Following radiological investigation, the woman was detected of carrying a mass of calcification. It was initially doubted as a tumor like development in the ovary, but the case turned out to be a calcified piece of mass.

Upon operation and subsequent removal, the doctor could discern its striking similarity to an Egyptian mummy. As per the opinion of the medical community, the process of preservation was naturally abetted by the immunological mechanism of the pregnant woman. This in turn, had aided and abetted the process of calcification. Certain mythological as well as mystical explanations were seen doing the rounds, as well, with people vouching for the influence of black magic.

Though attempts have been made by the medical fraternity towards giving a rational orientation, the causative antecedents responsible for such a bizarre occurrence are yet to be discerned.

The Malayan Horned Frog

The Long-nosed Horned Frog also known as the Malayan Horned Frog or Malayan Leaf Frog is a species of frog restricted to the rainforest areas of southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia to Singapore, Sumatra and Borneo. This species is a large frog ranging from 100-120 mm in length. They are light to dark brown on the dorsal surface with varying patterns and camouflage very well with the forest floor. The throat is black-dark brown and diffuses into cream-yellow halfway along the ventral surface. The upper eyelids and snout are drawn out into long triangular projections, forming what looks like “horns”, giving them their common name.

The Purple Frog

It can be found in the Western Ghats in India. Names in English that have been used for this species are purple frog, Indian purple frog or pignose frog. The body of Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis appears robust and bloated and is relatively rounded compared to other more dorsoventrally-flattened frogs. Its arms and legs splay out in the standard anuran body form. Compared to other frogs, N. sahyadrensis has a small head and an unusual, pointed snout. Adults are typically dark purplish-grey in color. Males are about a third of the length of females.

The Crucifix Toad
The Crucifix Toad is the most distinctive species of frog within the Notaden genus. Whereas most Notaden frogs are dark brown in colour, the Crucifix Toad exhibits many bright colours. Its dorsal surface is bright yellow, with a cross of many colours centered on the back. The cross is outlined with large, black dots, and filled with white, black and red dots. The ventral surface is white, and the flank’s blue. The Crucifix Toad is a small, and very round frog. Its nose is blunt, and legs and feet are small. As this species is fossorial, the tympanum is hidden. Males reach a length of 6.3 centimetres (2.5 in), and females a length of 6.8 centimetres (2.7 in). The species feet have little “spades” to help them burrow deeply.

Atelopus Frog
Atelopus, commonly known as Harlequin toads, is a large genus of true toads from Central and South America, ranging as far north as Costa Rica and as far south as Bolivia. Atelopus are small, generally brightly colored and diurnal. Most species are associated with mid- to high-elevation streams. This genus has been greatly affected by amphibian declines, and many species are now considered endangered, while others already are extinct. The cause of these declines primarily appears to be the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.

The initial piercing is done as an incision of the lower lip of 1 to 2 cm length, and a simple wooden peg is inserted. After the wound has healed, which usually takes between two and three weeks, the peg is replaced with a slightly bigger one. At a diameter of about 4 cm the first lip plate made of clay is inserted. Every woman crafts her plate by herself and takes pride in including some ornamentation. The final diameter ranges from about 8 cm to over 20 cm.
Neck Rings
Neck rings are one or more spiral metal coils of many turns worn as an ornament around the neck of an individual. In a few African and Asian cultures neck rings are worn usually to create the appearance that the neck has been stretched. Padaung (Kayan Lahwi) women of the Kayan people begin to wear neck coils from as young as age two. The length of the coil is gradually increased to as much as twenty turns. The weight of the coils will eventually place sufficient pressure on the shoulder blade to cause it to deform and create an impression of a longer neck. The custom of wearing neck rings is related to an ideal of beauty: an elongated neck.

Facial Scarification
Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning / branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification. In the process of body scarification, scars are formed by cutting or branding the skin by varying methods.Although infection may be a risk with most forms of scarification, this is still a common practice. Scarification is usually more visible on darker skinned people than tattoos.

Foot Binding

Foot binding is Chinese custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. The practice possibly originated among upperclass court dancers in the early T’ang dynasty, but spread and eventually became common among all but the lowest of classes. Eventually foot binding became very popular because men thought it to be highly attractive. Foot binding was their way of being beautiful, and a way to show that they were worthy of a husband. The foot binding process begins with a young girl (4-7 years old).

Tongue Splitting
Tongue bifurcation, splitting or forking, is a type of body modification in which the tongue is cut centrally from its tip to as far back as the underside base, forking the end. In the late 1990s tongue splitting was almost unheard of, but is now considered a common alteration among body modification enthusiasts.

Vampire Squid
The vampire squid is a small, deep-sea cephalopod found throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world. Unique retractile sensory filaments justify the vampire squid’s placement in its own order: Vampyromorphida (formerly Vampyromorpha), which shares similarities with both squid and octopuses. As a phylogenetic relict it is the only known surviving member of its order, first described and originally classified as an octopus in 1903 by German teuthologist Carl Chun, but later assigned to a new order together with several extinct taxa.

The Pelican Eel
The pelican eel, Eurypharynx pelecanoides, is a deep-sea fish rarely seen by humans, though it is occasionally caught in fishing nets. It is an eel-like fish and the only known member of the genus Eurypharynx and the family Eurypharyngidae. It belongs to the order Saccopharyngiformes, which is closely related to the true eels in Anguilliformes. It is also referred to as the gulper eel and the umbrella-mouth gulper. The specific epithet pelecanoides refers to the pelican, as the fish’s large mouth is reminiscent of that of the bird.

Megamouth Shark

The megamouth shark is an extremely rare species of deepwater shark, and the smallest of the three filter-feeding sharks. Since its discovery in 1976, only a few megamouth sharks have been seen, with 55 specimens known to have been caught or sighted as of 2012, including three recordings on film. Like the basking shark and whale shark, it is a filter feeder, and swims with its enormous mouth wide open, filtering water for plankton and jellyfish. It is distinctive for its large head with rubbery lips.

Stargazers
The stargazers are a family Uranoscopidae of perciform fish that have eyes on top of their heads. The family includes about 51 species in 8 genera, all marine and found worldwide in shallow waters. In addition to the top-mounted eyes, stargazers also have a large upward-facing mouth in a large head. Their usual habit is to bury themselves in sand, and leap upwards to ambush prey that pass overhead.

Venice, Italy
Venice is a city populated by over two hundred thousand people. This city stretches over 118 islands. The city is completely constructed on piles of wood that is underwater. There are rumors that the city is beginning to sink, but there is construction underway to prevent it from happening. The homes and business are always threatened when the tide rises in the spring and fall. What makes this city a part of the weird ones around the world is the only way you can travel through the city is by foot or by water. There are no cars allowed on the streets.

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Over a million people populate Amsterdam. It is know as being one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world. There are more bicycles on the road ways than there are cars. Driving cars are discourage, because most of the roads are one way and closed to vehicles. Most of the traveling throughout the city is done on bicycles, buses and tram lines. There is plenty of entertainment and museums throughout the city. But, the things that make this city amongst the weirdest are the legalized prostitution and drugs that you can mainly get to by going through the red light district. It is what the city is most famous for and it makes it the most popular parts of the city for tourists.

Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo’s population is over eight million. Tokyo is most famous for being the most expensive city in the world. It is the creator of Anime, Web Comics, and Godzilla would terrorize this city in every movie. There are numerous parks and gardens throughout the city. There is an abundance of science and art museums. There are also many performing art theaters. Sushi, which is traditionally a Japanese dish, is famous all over the world. But, the things that make Tokyo weird are the talking toilets and the hotel pods that people sleep in.

Las Vegas, Nevada
Populated by over a million people, Las Vegas is the 28th most popular city to live in the United States. It is nicknamed Sin City because of it love of adult entertainment. It has the highest number of churches in the United States. Some of the weirder aspects of Las Vegas include the size of everything. Everything in Las Vegas is oversized and full of neon lights. There is a little bit of every country represented in this one city. There are absolutely no clocks in this city and you can get a quickie marriage through drive through chapels.

Mt. Huashan

Mount Hua, or Xiyue is a mountain located near the city of Huayin in Shaanxi province, about 120 kilometres (75 mi) east of Xi’an. It is one of China’s Five Great Mountains, and has a long history of religious significance. Originally classified as having three peaks, in modern times the mountain is classified as five main peaks, of which the highest is the South Peak at 2,154.9 metres (7,070 ft).

Chernobyl disaster
Over 25 years ago in the town of Pripyat, there was the Chernobyl power plant. It exploded. That explosion caused massive radiation spikes in the Ukraine, and the effect of the blast was felt all over the world. Now, all that radiation is totally gone and everything is totally fine. Ask the people who now live at Pripyat. Because even to this day, that place is a ghost town and a radiation hotspot.

volcano boarding
Volcano surfing, also known as ash boarding or volcano boarding is a new sport, consisting of an erupted volcano and a thin Plywood or metal board. Riders hike up the volcano and slide down, sitting or standing.
Volcano Surfing is considered an “extreme sport” with the danger of falling off and getting cut by the rough volcanic ash. Protective gear, like jump suits and goggles are used for obvious reasons.

cage of death
This attraction is called the, “Cage of Death”. The crocodiles hate this exhibit and constantly attack the cube that people stay in, the cube is protected with a thick Plexiglas, which increases the realism for both the participants and the giant territorial reptiles whose home you are invading, and that never breaks. Well, except that one time. And the guy inside survived with all his limbs and only slight emotional trauma.

Western Water Hemlock

Deemed the most “violently toxic plant that grows in North America” by the USDA, the water hemlock contains the toxin cicutoxin, which wreaks havoc on the central nervous system, causing grand mal seizures–which include loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions–and eventually death, if ingested. Water hemlock is different from poison hemlock, Socrates’ notorious killer, in that it contains coniine alkaloids that kill by paralyzing the respiratory system. Both are members of the carrot family.

Castor Bean Plant

Castor-bean plants can be purchased at just about any garden center, despite containing the deadly poison ricin. Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants and poisonous plant expert, has an affinity for the plant and grows several in her poison garden. Concerned gardeners can simply pluck the seeds off the plant, Stewart says, which is where the ricin is stored. Though the process to extract enough ricin and process it into a weapon is complex, Las Vegas authorities have discovered the toxin in a hotel room in February 2008, and the KGB used it to permanently silence opposition.

Common Bladderwort

This aquatic meat eater relies on several submerged bladders to capture prey such as tadpoles and small crustaceans. An unsuspecting passerby will brush against an external bristle-trigger, causing the bladders to spring open and capture it. Once inside, the victim dies of suffocation or starvation and then decays into a liquid that is sucked up by cells on the walls of the bladder.

Venus flytrap

With the ability to clamp shut in a half-second, the Venus flytrap’s reaction time seems fit for the animal kingdom. Insects need to touch two of the flytrap’s hairs consecutively in order for the plant to react, but the precise mechanism that shuts the trap remains unclear. The Botanical Society of America notes that early theories suggested that a sudden change in the water pressure of cells triggered the response, but this theory has since been abandoned. It now seems that when the plant is touched, the electrical potential of the leaf is altered, triggering a host of cellular-level events.