THEY’RE the offbeat museums whose contents range from the quirky, to the downright deranged.
Forgo stuffy art collections and yawn-inducing exhibits — after all, there’s only so many masterpieces and fossils that one person can take, right? And instead, opt for a less highbrow cultural excursion on your next trip overseas.Bizarre, outrageous and sometimes gruesome — these have places have serious quirk factor. From Iceland’s penis museum and Croatia’s museum of broken relationships, to the underwater museum in Mexico; read on for 10 one-of-a-kind museums that are undoubtedly the world’s weirdest.
THE PENIS MUSEUM, ICELAND
*Shudder*Source:Supplied
Boasting quite possibly the largest — ahem — collection of phallic specimens in the world, Iceland’s Phallological Museum allows visitors to see how the human male stacks up against the planet’s other sea and land mammals.Comprising more than 250 “penises and penile parts’’ the collection spans the size gamut — from the hamster (two millimetres), to the phenomenally endowed sperm whale (1.7 metres). Other (crown) jewels in the collection include a lampshade made out of bull testicles, a recently donated human penis from a 95-year-old Icelandic man and a tree trunk carved into a giant penis, which brings a hole new meaning to the phrase, ‘morning wood.’The adjoining gift store — which serves up more penis paraphernalia than you’ll find at a raucous hen’s party — is worth the entrance fee alone.
MUSEUM OF VAMPIRES, FRANCE
There’s only one museum in the world dedicated to vampires.Source:Supplied
“Twilight”, “True Blood”, “The Vampire Diaries” — given our obvious appetite for all things vampiric, it might come as some surprise that there aren’t a bevy of museums dedicated to the undead. In fact, there’s only one.Located on the outskirts of Paris, is officially the world’s only vampire museum. The private collection of a self-proclaimed ‘Vampirologist’, its standout exhibits include a 19th century vampire-hunting kit, a mummified cat and a loaded crossbow made specifically for fighting bloodsuckers. And if all that isn’t macabre enough, the museum is said to be haunted too!
THE CANCUN UNDERWATER MUSEUM, MEXICO
Feel the serenity.Source:Supplied
A gallery you need a snorkel or scuba gear to appreciate? Take the plunge at Cancun’s — one of the largest underwater museums on the planet.Offshore, the warm, crystal clear waters of the Caribbean Sea acts as gallery space for more than 400 life size sculptures, ranging from large crowds of people to a fat man seated in front of a TV. All of the artworks are made from pH-neutral clay, which means that marine life can thrive on their surfaces, so they already look like they’ve been there for centuries.Originally from the UK, Paul has lived and worked in three different continents: from the heady metropolis of Dubai, to North America and - as of seven years ago - Sydney, Australia; a place he now calls home. You can find out
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