Obscura Day 2012: Get Out There and Explore!

Thanks to the internet, the world can sometimes seem awfully small. Google just about anything you want to know and instantaneously, you can have more information than you ever needed on any topic you desire. It's easy to forget that there are still adventures to be had, stories to be told and unexplored areas to discover. That's where Atlas Obscura comes in.

Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras created what they call "the definitive guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world's most wondrous places." In short: they reach out to the public—that means you guys, too!—to learn about places for inclusion, places that "appeal to our sense of wonder and curiosity." They've got tips for places all over the world—including Bouvet Island in Antarctica, the so-called "loneliest place on earth," and Graceland Too, the "home of the world's fullest-time Elvis fanatic."

Next Saturday (April 28), Atlas Obscura is hosting their annual international celebration of unusual places.

The first Obscura Day took place in 2010, where people from Australia, Belgium, France, London, Brooklyn and many other places explored their cities. (Brooklynites explored the city's first subway tunnel!) Check out founder Dylan Thuras' recap. (Spoiler: The world's largest treehouse is featured.)

http://vimeo.com/10965462

In 2011, friends of Obscura checked out Philadelphia's medical oddity museum, secret spaces in Alcatraz and other rarely seen hot spots all over the world.

http://vimeo.com/27470235

And here's what you can look forward to this year. Click here to see if there's something going on near you. So get out there and do some exploring, _flossers. And be sure to come back and tell us all about what you discover. (Especially if you're in Kensington, Australia, and you participate in the hands-on embalming session using a pig heart!)

http://vimeo.com/39776323