Just like you, our wings miss for a dose of culture. There is a famous museum in almost every city, which every traveler wants to visit. Wondering what will be the first places you visit when you can travel again? To get ready for the travel season, we have prepared a list of places worth dreaming to visit when it will be possible. These are the most unusual museums that will delight both regular visitors to the city and those who have visited for the first time.
MUSEUM OF SWEETS AND SELFIES, BUDAPEST
One of the most colourful museums in Europe is a dream spot for Instagram and a place where to fill up on endorphins, rediscover your inner child, and make stunning photos for social networks. To bring more cheer into people’s lives, the museum combines a small café and confectionery shop with a labyrinth of adventure rooms.
Packed with thematic scenes, the two floors accommodate eleven installations. The first room is a paradise with glittery flamingos and pink palm trees, a giant strawberry wrecking ball, and banana candy swings. Up next, there is a pool filled with tiny rubber candies. Elsewhere, you can strike a pose with a giant unicorn or have an Alice in Wonderland tea session with levitating teacups and cakes.
Adress – Paulay Ede utca 43; szelfimuzeum.hu
NEON MUSEUM, WARSAW
Neon Museum is a must-visit place for any street-art lover. Located in the post-industrial Praga factory district, which is now developing into a creative hub, the Neon Museum holds a large collection of signs that date from the 1950s to 1970s. Aside from the exposition, the museum documents urban artifacts from Warsaw’s past.
As a part of the Eastern Bloc, Warsaw experienced a government- commissioned ‘neonisation’ campaign. Because there were no brands to advertise, the new neon signs instead represented general facilities, such as ‘Theatre’, ‘Bar’, ‘Library’, ‘Sewing machines’, or cinemas named after cities like ‘Leningrad’ and ‘Szanghai’. After the downfall of communism, the old neon signs disappeared only to be rediscovered decades later as endangered urban gems.
Adress – Ulica Mińska 25; neonmuzeum.org
MUSEUM OF BRANDS, LONDON
Museum of Brands is a unique insight into the evolution of well-loved brands. Situated near bustling Portobello Road in the hip atmosphere of London’s Notting Hill, the museum represents 150 years of product packaging, posters, logos, and vintage games and toys. With nearly 12,000 items displayed, the cabinets are packed with bright and colourful product labels and thorough decade-by- decade explanations about changes in their design.
For instance, you can follow the transformation of a bottle of Guinness or a Kellogg’s cereal box. Then, you can continue the journey with a section devoted to toys and TV games, magazine covers, and advert posters. Sweetest of all is the collection of candy wrappers and cereal packaging is a truly nostalgic moment.
Adress – 111-117 Lancaster Road; museumofbrands.com
GALLERY OF PALEONTOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, PARIS
Right beside the famed Sorbonne University, there is the Jardin des Plantes with various gardens, greenhouses, natural history galleries, libraries, and even a small zoo. Among attractions here is the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy.
Dating to 1898, this Belle Époque-style structure is divided into two exhibition areas inspired by motifs from nature. The display of fossils and bones includes dinosaur skeletons as well as giant ground sloths and mammoths, the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy steals the show with a massive army of animal skeletons, including a 20-metre-long head of the whale, the giraffe of a Dutch king and the remains of a rhino that belonged to Louis XV of France.
Adress – 2 Rue Buffon; mnhn.fr
NATIONAL LEPRECHAUN MUSEUM, DUBLIN
The leprechaun is the unofficial symbol or Ireland; it is a little man clad in a red or green coat so children and folk tale fans must peek into the museum of these mythical creatures. A knowing guide will take each visitor on an exciting journey, recount the most famous Irish legends and allow a look into the wishing well.
The main attraction is a room where one can imagine what it’s like to be a leprechaun, as all furniture is gigantic. Even the spoons and forks are the size of a man! If you can’t forget the tale about a leprechaun who has buried a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, adults can come back at night – in the evening, tours devoted to the darkest alleys of the Irish folklore are organized.
MUSEUM OF MICROBES, AMSTERDAM
After a visit to this museum, you’ll start washing your hands more often as the interactive exposition provides a glimpse into the hidden world of microbes around us. On entry, you walk through a body scanner that informs you about microbes that live on human skin; next up is the Kiss–o–meter where one can find out how many microbes are swapped during a passionate kiss.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGhnZr0BNa1/
Instagram pictures are usually snapped by the wall with rows of plastic containers with colourful microbial colonies, and glass sculptures of viruses, such as the HIV and Ebola.
MUSEUM OF TOILETS, KYIV
In history lessons, the history of the toilet is not a hugely popular topic, but this museum is all about it. The exposition reveals how toilet paper was invented in China more than 2000 years ago and how Leonardo Da Vinci designed the construction of the flushing tank. The manager of the museum has even written a book on the history of toilets!
The museum holds a display of historical wooden chamber pots and funny lavatory signs, as well as the world’s largest collection of toilet bowl souvenirs, which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.