Dining out isn't just about the food. It's about the whole experience.

Some restaurants offer delicious food, incredible views, and an amazing atmosphere — and people travel around the world just to eat at them.

From a snow village in Finland to an underwater restaurant in the Maldives to the best restaurant in the world on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, here are 40 unforgettable restaurants that are worth traveling the world to eat at.

SEE ALSO: 50 incredible hotels you should sleep in during your lifetime

Follow us! Business Insider is on Instagram

Al Mahara, which is located inside Dubai's luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel, claims to have the best seafood in Dubai. The restaurant's golden archway leads into a dining room built around a stunning aquarium, so guests can watch sharks, sting rays, and fish swim past as they dine.

Click here to learn more about Al Mahara >

See what it's like to dine at Al Mahara >

Offering 16th-floor views of Moscow, Russia, the "Alice in Wonderland"-themed White Rabbit serves Russian delicacies like caviar and truffles. The restaurant was ranked No. 23 on this year's list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants.

To learn more about the White Rabbit, click here >

Taking the number one spot on this year's list of the World's 100 Best Restaurants, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, is run by the three Roca brothers who form the perfect restaurant trio: a head chef, a pastry chef, and a sommelier.

To learn more about El Celler de Can Roca, click here >

Kevin Garnett has signed a contract to return to the Minnesota Timberwolves on a two-year deal that will increase his career earnings to $343.4 million, the most in NBA history.

Garnett has never been considered one of the five or 10 best players of all time, but he has used talent and some good fortune to make nearly $330 million and counting.

Let's take a look at how more than once, Garnett was just the right player, in the right place, at the right time.

In 1995, Kevin Garnett was a 6-foot-11, 220-pound senior in high school and it had been 20 years since a high school player went straight to the NBA.

At 19, he chose to enter the NBA draft after failing to reach the minimum score on the ACT necessary for NCAA eligibility.

SOURCE: ESPN

The Minnesota Timberwolves made Garnett the fifth pick of the 1995 NBA Draft.

On Monday, Curtis Jackson, better known as rapper 50 Cent, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a messy lawsuit in which he was forced to pay his rival Rick Ross' ex-girlfriend $5 million.

The news came as a shock, especially considering the rapper was just ranked No. 4 on Forbes' May list of the wealthiest hip-hop artists thanks to his reported $155 million net worth and his massive 2007 deal with Vitamin Water in which he was awarded between $60 million and $100 million.

50's lawyers have said the filing is simply to "reorganize his financial affairs as he addresses various professional liabilities," but in the meantime, we only want to live in a world 5o Cent is synonymous with his hit 2003 album title, "Get Rich or Die Tryin.'"

Curtis James Jackson III was born July 6, 1975 in Queens, New York, where he grew up dealing drugs. In 2000, he was struck by 9 bullets during a shooting in his neighborhood.

After he released the compilation album 'Guess Who's Back?' in 2002, the young rapper was discovered by Eminem and signed by Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records as part of a $1 million deal.

Source: BBC

With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre — who produced his first label album in 2003, 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' — 50 Cent became one of the world's most successful rappers, selling over 30 million albums worldwide.

Google Street View is an incredibly helpful tool for finding directions to places you're not familiar with.

But it's also a super fun way to see photos of exotic destinations, like the top of the Mount Everest, inside the Eiffel Tower, or the middle of the Amazon jungle.

We went through a whole section dedicated to underwater photos from all across the world and picked out our favorites. Check out some of the most beautiful photos we've found there.

SEE ALSO: 25 incredible photos of climbing El Capitan’s 3,000-foot wall, seen through Google’s new vertical Street View

This is a humpback whale found in the Cook Islands near Australia. Every May and October, it migrates to this area looking for warmer waters to mate and rest.

The Antilla shipwreck is one of the largest in the Caribbean region, located 60 feet underwater near Aruba.

This is a Mola mola, or Ocean Sunfish, which is the heaviest bony fish in the world, according to Google. It weighs up to 2,000 kg and 3 meters in length. It usually spends most of its time 600 meters underwater, but shows up around Nusa Penida close to Indonesia for a few months every year.

Self-taught Finnish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt has been capturing breathtaking photos of Finland's landscape since 2008. 

His love of photographing the stars has led to a unique collection of images that capture the country's beauty at nighttime and in the early hours of the dawn. 

For Lagerstedt, the initial inspiration came while driving to his relative's cabin and witnessing the combination of sunshine and fog rising in nearby fields on a rainy day.

Since then, he has made it his goal to capture these stunning moments of nature and has produced an awe-inspiring collection. 

We've put together some of our favorite photos, but you can find his full collection on his Instagram, Facebook, and website. 

SEE ALSO: 46 stunning Instagram photos that will inspire you to travel the world

Follow us! Business Insider Travel is on Twitter

Langerstadt shows a dreamy side to Finland's lakes with swirls of pinks and blues mixing with evening stars.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/2oYGOINPIy/embed/
Width: 800px

He has traveled to Porvoo, in southern Finland, to photograph the rare and majestic sight of the Northern Lights in the sky.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/1p1DYsNPP9/embed/
Width: 800px

Here is another shot from the Northern Lights in Porvoo.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/0ntc7AtPDR/embed/
Width: 800px

Marie Kondo is a Japanese lifestyle celebrity in Japan. She's known for helping people decrease clutter and straighten up their homes for good. And she's developed a fan base so huge, her followers are flooding Instagram with photos of their "kondo-ed" homes.

Her book — "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing"— became a top seller this year and even earned her a spot on Time's 2015 "Top 100 Influential People" list. 

She also has clients in Japan that seek her out to help them tidy their homes. She encourages them to clean everything in one fell swoop and only keep the objects and clothes that they truly love.

"There is an order to follow: 1. clothes, 2. books, 3. documents, 4. miscellaneous items, 5. mementos,"Kondo told Business Insider about her method. "Working in this order, you can improve your judgement and determine which items spark joy."

She told BI that you can tell when something sparks joy when you "feel your body go upward." If something doesn't make you happy when you touch it, Kondo said you should "thank it for its service" and get rid of it.

"When you choose things based on your real feeling, you can choose the right amount of items to totally fit [in you home]," Kondo said. "That is surprising for everyone — this is part of the magic of tidying up."

Bellow you'll see inspiring images of so-called "kondoed" homes that people posted on Instagram. You might even want to start "kondo-ing" yourself.

This might be what your bedroom currently looks like right now. To start "kondo-ing," put all of your clothes in one spot and sort them by what to keep and what to throw away.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/43HpGVJZRa/embed/
Width: 800px

The point of kondo-ing your home is to surround yourself with things that you love. Kondo recommends only keeping things that "spark joy," or that make you feel lighter when you touch them. She says you'll recognize the feeling immediately.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/4w-sSHpzPt/embed/
Width: 800px

That means you'll probably end up throwing out or giving away a lot of what's in your home.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/5DXt0HvSrJ/embed/
Width: 800px

It is 2015 and same-sex marriage is now legal across the United States.

But in the late 1980s, it was a different story. The gay community was not widely accepted, and couples had to keep their relationships mostly secret. 

It was during this period that photographer Sage Sohier set out across America with her Fuji camera to capture gay couples in their homes. 

“Viewers were familiar with seeing gay day parades, and other ‘colorful’ aspects of the gay community. What they were less familiar with were the private, intimate moments of a couple’s home life,” Sohier told Business Insider in an interview.

Sohier says the recent Supreme Court ruling was "a very moving moment for me. It’s phenomenal how far the country has come on this one issue, and it’s a humanizing moment worth celebrating in an otherwise troubled time.”

Sohier's photos were published last fall in a book called "At Home With Themselves," which is available to buy on her website. A selection of those photos are below, along with more excerpts from our interview with Sohier.

SEE ALSO: 33 ridiculously cool buildings of the future

Sohier started her project in Provincetown, Mass. in August 1986. She says she started “approaching couples at Tea Dances, and talking to them about what I wanted to do." She photographed six couples in Provincetown that first week, and later photographed friends of friends, and placed ads seeking couples in gay newspapers in Boston and around the US.

In addition to the newspaper ads, she also would go to gay parades and gay bars in different cities. “Once I photographed a few couples in a given city, a whole network of couples emerged who were open to being photographed — friends and acquaintances of the couples I had already photographed,” she says.

"Couples would give me a tour of their apartment, and I would ask where they liked to spend time together," Sohier says. "After that, we would choose a couple of different rooms to make pictures in. People made it clear if a particular room was off-limits, and I told them which environments I was most interested in and why."

"Mad Max: Fury Road" was one of the best movies of the year.

Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the film follows a team of underdog-vigilantes on the run from the War Boys, a mutant gang, and their leader Immortan Joe. It grossed $350 million worldwide and conjured a rare 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

So it was no surprise that fans showed their love for the film at San Diego Comic-Con. 

Fans in "Mad Max" cosplay, or role-playing costumes, were everywhere you looked.

We rounded up the best "Mad Max" cast look-a-likes from the Con.

SEE ALSO: This family's elaborate 'Mad Max' cosplay cost $700 to make

Elsa and Anna from “Frozen” dressed for battle on the Fury Road in one of the most creative cosplays we saw at the Con.

Elsa wore black war paint around her eyes and a mechanical hand to match Furiosa.

Olaf rides eternal, shiny, and chrome!

San Diego Comic-Con isn't just for the fans. 

Tens of actors and celebrities head to the annual event every year to greet fans of their favorite movies and TV shows and head to network and studio parties.

That doesn't mean they don't get in on the fun of the Con as well. 

Check out some of the best moments from the weekend.

We've found a new photobomb queen and her name is Jennifer Lawrence.

"Tried to get a pic with my favorite #TheHungerGames #MockingjayPart2 actors, but #JLaw ruined it." -#ConanOBrien #ConanCon #SDCC #TeamCoco

A photo posted by CONAN on TBS (@teamcoco) on Jul 9, 2015 at 6:10pm PDT

Was anyone ever more excited to meet Bill Murray than Jennifer Lawrence?

RAW Embed

Maybe "Game of Thrones" actress Maisie Williams. She was also at a loss for words.

Would you mind if I got a picture with you? Yeah sure, I guess I'll just hold up these Cheetos Sure, I don't mind *silence*

A photo posted by @maisie_williams on Jul 9, 2015 at 1:58pm PDT

Paris Couture Week. Bastille Day.

This time of year you're constantly slapped in the face by the disgusting chicness of how the French half lives.

But alas, we live in New York — a poor man's more expensive Paris.

Thankfully, we've curated our edit of brunch spots where you can make a heaven of hell — a Paris of New York — and dine away your day in a Seine worthy scene.

SEE ALSO: 10 of New York City’s best-kept secrets

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Lifestyle page on Facebook!

Bobo

A photo posted by Bobo (@boborestaurant) on Apr 22, 2015 at 11:21am PDT

If, on this particularly lovely of days, we were to be at Bobo, happily sunning ourselves, planted in their dream of a garden, our order would look like this: To share for the table, there would be the local oysters with mignonette, a plate of their tuna tartare atop a a slice of brioche toast, and a dish of the smoked salmon tartine, a baguette spread with cream cheese, salmon, onion and grated egg.

And to most definitely not share, there would be the Omelette Fermiere, with asparagus, mushrooms and gruyere, side order of fries, and too delicious a treat of chocolate beignets and ganache to round it all out. In the words of the mythical character of a french Rachel Zoe - Je die.

Bobo, 181 West 10th Street

Maman

A photo posted by Maman (@_mamannyc_) on Jan 21, 2015 at 4:03am PST

This cafe bakery tucked away in the elbow of Soho and Nolita has all the warmth of a cottage in Provence. Everything at Maman is precious — from their delicately patterned blue and white porcelain to go cups, to their affinity for curiously placed bunny figurines.

The menu changes daily, but a colorful quotidienne spread of pastries, quiches, soups, salads, and sandwiches can always be expected. And let us not forget the dessert treats. Perfect for pairing with a cup of the Toby's Estate brew.

Maman, 239 Centre Street

Tartine

A photo posted by Cecilia Park (@cecex81) on Apr 18, 2015 at 12:28pm PDT

One of the most picturesque corner spots nestled in the West Village, Tartine is a haven of simplicity in a neighborhood where trendiness has the bad habit of creeping in.

With a tight squeeze of a dining room, dressed in wood paneling and decorated with lighthouses galore (a little weird, we agree), the truly French first seating choice would have to be the even tighter squeeze outside, awning covered, skimming the sidewalk at one of their handful of just barely big enough for two tables. Add an orange juice, coffee, and the plated perfection of their Grey Goose Cured Scottish Salmon over a warm potato pancake and fromage blanc. Oh, la vie en Tartine.

Tartine, 253 West 11th Street

You try to eat healthy, but healthy food fads seem to come and go as fast as fashion trends. It's tough to keep up!

A few years ago, heart-healthy oats and pomegranate juice were in vogue.

More recently, everyone has been eating Greek yogurt and kale, which are now ingredients in dozens of food products including candy, dips, and snacks. 

But a whole new crop of good-for-you-sounding foods are about to upstage them. We rounded up four of them here.

Ever chow down on bean pasta or munch on hemp seeds? Our guide can help you figure out whether those and other hot health foods are worth putting in your shopping cart.

READ MORE: 17 'healthy habits' you're better off giving up

Chia seeds

Like other seeds and nuts, chia seeds are high in fiber and can be a healthy addition to your diet. Try mixing them into salad dressings, smoothies, and yogurt. But don't pay attention to weight-loss claims. In a study of overweight adults on a chia-laced diet, there were no big losers.

What to buy or skip: 

Look for bags of whole seeds. In packaged products, the seeds are generally too low on the ingredients list to make any difference in your diet.

Bean pasta

Chickpeas and beans are nutrition powerhouses. And bean pastas are even healthier than wheat-based pastas because noodles made from beans are packed with more protein and fiber. They're also gluten-free.

But don't overdo it! A 3.5-ounce serving of chickpea-based pasta has 340 calories—more than double that of regular spaghetti (163 calories) or even a similar serving of plain beans.

What to buy or skip: 

Pick pastas with beans listed first in ingredients lists.

Hemp seeds

These mild-tasting seeds are rich in alpha-linolenic acid, a plant-based source of heart-healthy omega-3s. And using the seeds in place of nuts in recipes is an easy way to boost protein. Don't worry—they won't give you the munchies. The seeds are free of THC, the chemical in hemp's cousin, marijuana.

Margot Robbie left jaws on the floor after her breakout performance in "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Now, the Aussie actress takes on an iconic comic book character, Harley Quinn, in Warner Brothers' "Suicide Squad." The trailer leaked over the weekend, after fans at San Diego Comic-Con went nuts for it.

And on Monday, Warner Bros. released it to the public.

In honor of Robbie's newfound success, we're looking back at how she became a Hollywood star.

Born in 1990, Margot Robbie grew up on her grandparents' farm on Australia's Gold Coast. A business-savvy child, she would make up magic tricks and put on shows, charging anyone who wanted to learn her tricks.

Big bro ❤️ #tbt

A photo posted by @margotrobbie on Apr 17, 2014 at 1:31am PDT

She bought her first surfboard at a garage sale when she was 10. "I'm happiest when I'm surfing or out on the farm hunting wild pigs ... or riding around on motorbikes," she said in a 2008 interview.

Sunset surf in San Juan del Sur

A photo posted by @margotrobbie on Apr 24, 2014 at 8:54pm PDT

Source: Yahoo! Canada

As a teen, she worked as a subway artist at a Subway in Melbourne. (Six months after Robbie landed her first major acting role, Subway hired her for a commercial. "I got paid like 20 times the amount I ever earned there," Robbie says.)

The world can be an expensive place.

And between paying for flights, hotels, and just feeding yourself on a daily basis, traveling the world can get incredibly expensive.

The internet has certainly done its best to help you save money while traveling, but frequently this means making some less exciting sacrifices — like sharing a dorm-style hostel room with 24 drunk Australian teenagers on gap year rather than getting your own hotel suite, or taking a rickety, dangerous bus through the mountains instead of a luxurious sleeper car on a high-speed train.

But not all affordable experiences are cut-rate.

Here are some of the coolest totally free experiences you can have from around the globe.

SEE ALSO: The 7 best things about traveling alone

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Lifestyle page on Facebook!

Visit St. Peter’s Basilica.

It’ll cost you a bit to get into the famous Sistine Chapel, but St. Peter’s Basilica itself is one of the world’s most beautiful churches in the world.

It’s also literally the biggest church, and it features work by some of the world’s great artists, including Michelangelo. One of his most famous works, the Pieta, is right by the entrance.

Go to the Full Moon Rave.

The legendary Full Moon Party in Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand, has free entry.

Mostly intended for partying tourists, the monthly party, held on the night of the full moon, is infamous for it’s dancing, booze, and general debauchery.

Watch the Hong Kong skyline light show.

Every night like clockwork at 8 p.m., on both sides of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, 47 buildings take part in a 14-minutes light and sound show called the “Symphony of Lights.”

The view is truly spectacular, and one of the world’s most dazzling skylines becomes even crazier. You can watch it from wherever you like.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G4 are two of the best phones available today.

They also have two of the best cameras ever put in a smartphone.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the LG G4 sport 16-megapixel cameras. But they have different camera parts that results in very different photos.

The G4 has a wider f/1.8 aperture while the S6's is f/1.9, meaning the G4 lets a little more light into the sensor, which also happens to be slightly bigger on the G4.

We put both cameras through their paces to see which one is best.

(Note:  All photos were taken with the camera's default settings in the same place at the same time. No flash or editing features were used).

SEE ALSO: How the iPhone 6's camera compares to the Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9

This photo of a mix of shade and direct sunlight was taken with the Galaxy S6. The brightness of the leaves is even and the surrounding area in the sunlight isn't overexposed.

The G4 overexposes the sunlit areas and patches, which strips them of detail. The leaves are darker, too, but the flower colors are more accurate, as the S6 saturates a little. The S6 beats the G4 here.

However, photos taken with the S6 suffer a little when it comes to settings with more sunlight, as sunlit areas are over-exposed and washed out, which robs them of their details and color.

The beautiful Upper East Side townhouse that served as the facade for Holly Golightly's apartment building in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" has just been sold for $7.4 million, the New York Observer reports.

The townhouse last changed hands in 2012, when Peter E. Bacanovic, the former Merrill Lynch broker who spent five months in prison for his role in the Martha Stewart insider trading scandal, sold it to a Cyprus-based LLC for around $6 million.

The new owner's identity is also shielded by an LLC. The home, which is configured for two families, was initially listed for $10 million last year, according to the Observer.

SEE ALSO: 40 restaurants you should try in your lifetime

Does this townhouse building look familiar?

It played a starring role in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," as the home of Holly Golightly.

The building is currently divided into two separate duplexes, with 10 rooms altogether.

I just came back from a nine-day vacation in Italy full of delicious meals. But of all the pasta, pizza, and prosciutto I scarfed down, one meal stands out the most.

A friend recommended I go to a restaurant in Florence called Il Latini. It's a short walk from Ponte Vecchio and the hotel where I was staying. Buried on a little side street, it'd normally be easy to miss the restaurant.

But as we approached the spot at 7 PM, a half hour before the restaurant opened, there was a crowd gathered outside.

That crowd quickly grew to 50 people. The restaurant looked small and I was confident I'd never get a chance to eat at the curious place.

But at 7:30 the doors opened and a jolly man stepped outside.

"Don't worry, and please don't push!" he said. "There is room for all of you inside to eat, even if you don't have a reservation."

We entered the restaurant and were ushered to a side room full of long cloth-covered tables. Another couple was seated at our table, where a massive bottle of red wine and homemade olive oil was waiting. 

What followed was the best Italian meal I'd have that week, and one you definitely shouldn't miss if you're headed to Florence.

The best part: the endless food and wine only costs 50 Euros per person.

Traveling in the US? Check out: The best restaurant in every state

Il Latini is just a short walk over the Ponte Veccio bridge in Florence, Italy.

It's a four generation, family-style restaurant that's been in business for over a century. The doors open at 7:30 PM and a big crowd was gathered outside when we showed up at 7:00.

At 7:30, one of the hosts came outside and assured everyone that, reservation or not, there was plenty of room inside for all of us to come feast. So we filed in. We sat with two other couples, a Polish couple visiting from England and an American couple who was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.

Scientists who ask the right questions at the right time can make history and change the world.

We compiled a list of 50 scientists from across the globe who are doing just that — changing the world for the better.

These scientists' revolutionary research in human happiness, evolutionary biology, neutrino physics, biotechnology, archeology, and other fields is helping to advance our lives in more ways than we could ever imagine.

For the list, we selected scientists noted in the media for their recent achievements as well as scientists highlighted in the 2014 lists of Forbes Magazine's "30 Under 30," Popular Science's The Brilliant Ten, and MIT's "35 Innovators Under 30."

SEE ALSO: This woman's revolutionary idea made her a billionaire — and could change medicine

DON'T MISS: Russia's secret space shuttles have been sitting in plain sight for 22 years

Abe Davis is finding new ways to use video by using the vibrations in it to reconstruct audio.

No sound? No problem. Abe Davis and a team of researchers from MIT, Microsoft, and Adobe developed an algorithm that can extract audio from silent videos by analyzing the tiny vibrations of the objects as captured by a camera.

In one experiment, the team filmed earbuds playing a song with no discernible sound. The vibrations of the earbuds in the video was enough to recreate a song identifiable by the app Shazam. When the team tried the experiment using an everyday point-and-shoot camera, as opposed to an expensive high-speed version, the vibrations were still able to reconstruct the sound. Davis presented these findings in a paper for Siggraph, a computer-graphics conference, and gave a TED talk where he demoed the visual microphone. And there’s more to come: The latest research from Davis and fellow graduate student Katie Bouman will be out this summer.

Davis is a doctoral student at MIT.

Alan Stern is spearheading the most important space mission of 2015.

On July 14, 2015, the NASA spacecraft New Horizons flew by Pluto — closer than any other human-made instrument has ever been. Alan Stern is spearheading the mission, leading the team of scientists that made sure the spacecraft survived its nine-year journey through space. 

Until New Horizons reached its closest approach to Pluto, little was known about this dwarf planet and its system of five moons. Now the NASA spacecraft has collected data that Stern and his team will be analyzing over the coming months to understand the geology, composition, and atmospheric content of Pluto in significant detail, something that would never have happened without the New Horizons spacecraft.

Stern is the principal investigator for NASA's New Horizons mission.

Andrea Accomazzo was the first person to land a probe on a comet.

In August 2014, the Rosetta spacecraft began orbiting the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko and transmitting images to Earth of the dusty space snowball that were more detailed than anything we'd ever seen.

Ultimately, Rosetta will give scientists a better idea of what comets are made of and how they work, as well as provide insights into the chemical makeup of the solar system. As the Rosetta flight director, Andrea Accomazzo helped design the mission and led the team that guided it toward 67P. Now he's working with the European Space Agency on their interplanetary missions to Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter.

Accomazzo is an ESA spacecraft-operations manager at Venus Express and the flight director of the Rosetta mission.

There are a lot of new faces, returning stars, and movie stars-turned-TV leads who have made Emmy voting particularly tough this year.

That combined with new offerings from Amazon and Netflix, as well as a few network newcomers could make comedy giants Sophia Vergara and Julia Louis-Dreyfus nervous, or take two-time nominated Kerry Washington out of the run altogether. And while Bryan Cranston can't be considered again, "Breaking Bad" prequel, "Better Call Saul," may have a winner in Bob Odenkirk.

Whether or not they actually get nominated on July 16, these stars are factoring big among voters.

Here are this year's potential Emmy game changers:

SEE ALSO: 6 reasons comedies are failing on network TV

MORE: 19 popular movies currently being made into TV shows

Ellie Kemper, 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' (Netflix)

Nothing stops Ellie Kemper's constantly upbeat titular character on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Passed over by NBC, the Robert Carlock-Tina Fey series found itself a binge worthy home on Netflix. And now, Kemper is the talk of the town.

Bob Odenkirk, 'Better Call Saul' (AMC)

Just when you though you knew who Saul Goodman was, "Better Call Saul" introduces us to Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill. He's not yet the shifty, fast-talking attorney of "Breaking Bad," but Odenkirk plays him so that it feels like Saul is just under Jimmy's skin.

Amy Schumer, 'Inside Amy Schumer' (Comedy Central)

No, Amy Schumer isn't new to her fans, but the comedienne and actress has suddenly become the next big thing. Despite having starred on Comedy Central's "Inside Amy Schumer" for three seasons, more and more people are catching on to her offbeat, politically incorrect take on gender, sex, race and current events. Is it possible that "Inside Amy Schumer" can take down "Saturday Night Live" in the sketch show category? Many are saying she could.

I don't smoke marijuana, but I recently visited Colorado and decided to check out a marijuana dispensary.

Colorado's tourism industry has been skyrocketing, and many claim it's due to January 2014's legalization of the possession and sale of cannabis.

Whether that's true or not, dispensaries are estimated to have brought in $295 million in sales as well as $51 million in tax revenue in 2014. Colorado is ranked one of the fastest-growing economies in the country, and its unemployment rate has seen the biggest drop in the US.

So when I saw that Telluride, a tiny town (population 2,319) I've been visiting biannually for the last 15+ years, suddenly boasted four marijuana dispensaries (and only two pharmacies, to put it into perspective), I had to check one out for myself. My dad and brother came along for the ride.

We decided to visit the Alpine Wellness dispensary, possibly for its scenic and spa-like name. It was up a flight of stairs inside one of those little shopping plazas, and in fact shared its space with a masseuse. From the outside it was barely distinguishable from a day spa or doctor's office.

A bearded man in a bright yellow shirt and red hat was perched at the front desk and enthusiastically waved us inside. Smiling broadly, he apologetically asked us for ID (even from my 60-something father).

Marijuana is legal, but, like with alcohol, you have to be 21 to purchase any. Looking our IDs over, he told us to sit tight until the salesperson finished up with other customers, so we hung around in a sort of sterile waiting room. The only thing differentiating it from a doctor's office were the psychedelic, tie-dye heavy posters on the walls.

Only a minute later the "budtender" was ready for us, beaming as she summoned us into the main room, which was lined with counters full of various cannabis strains (with names like Jabberwocky and G-Funk), pre-rolled joints, oils, creams and gels, lip balms, and homemade edibles ranging from watermelon caramels to peanut butter dipped in dark chocolate. Apparently, everything there contained "100% organic soil-grown cannabis."

A line formed behind us as we peppered the budtender with questions. Basically, you tell her what kind of a high you're looking for, and she explains the various products until you find one that's just right.

I learned that most marijuana comes in one of two strains: Indica or Sativa. Indicas are more about a buzzy body high, and said to aid sleep and pain relief. This is the kind of high that will have you melting into your couch clutching a pint of Rocky Road, unable to form complete thoughts or finish sentences, wondering whether you said what you meant to say, or whether you said anything at all in the last 5 to 50 minutes.

Sativa-dominant strains, on the other hand, are more energizing and mentally stimulating. That's the strain that will have you animatedly discussing dinosaurs versus zombies while blasting some Berlin electro.

Finally, there are hybrid strains that mix these two in different proportions.

After explaining to the budtender that we were looking for something mellow, she recommended a strain called MeltDown, which, she assured us — despite the name — would be good for a nice, light buzz. An eighth cost $40 and came packaged in a small brown paper bag. 

While definitely on the hippie side, the experience of visiting a marijuana dispensary was straightforward and pleasant — not at all sketchy as I had anticipated.

Really, it reminded me of a fancy wine shop, where customers defer to a connoisseur who knows the products well and can recommend something to each person's liking.

SEE ALSO: I biked through Tuscany and it was one of the hardest trips I’ve ever taken — but it was totally worth it

FOLLOW US:   BI Travel is on Twitter!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This guy absolutely loses it as he bungee jumps off a tower in China's beautiful Qing Long Canyon

One of the strangest new children's toys on the market is Lammily, a "real-life" doll for girls launched in 2014 by artist Nickolay Lamm.

Lammily has the proportions of an actual teenage girl — and is thus shorter and stockier than Barbie, the impossibly thin top-selling doll from Mattel.

Lammily sales are doing well: "We've done $1.5 million in sales exclusively from online. We have yet to try out speciality or mass retail, so we're excited about that," Lammily told Business Insider this week.

Several years ago, Lamm became obsessed with Barbie's distorted body. His obsession began in part due to his own attempt to obtain a "perfect" body as a teenager. "Back in high school, I starved myself and exercised to exhaustion to have a set of six-pack abs. After achieving my desired BMI, I looked and felt terrible,"he wrote recently on his blog. 

Two years ago, Lamm gave Business Insider a set of illustrations in which he tried to reshape Barbie using the proportions of an average American 19-year-old. "I feel that this is as close as you can get to a real life representation of a Barbie-proportioned woman standing next to an average sized woman," he told us.

The average 19-year-old woman was modeled using these measurements, as described by the CDC:

• 64.29″ height
• 33.62″ waist
• 14.09″ upper arm length
• 14.45″ upper leg length
• 20″ head circumference
• 15″ neck circumference

Barbie, at 1/6 scale, would have the following measurements, Lamm believes:

• 69″ height

• 36″ bust

• 18″ waist

• 33″ hips
• 
22″ head circumference
• 
9″ neck circumference

The illustrations below show what a "Barbie" might look like if she was a normal American. (And you can see how they eventually led Lamm to create Lammily.)

SEE ALSO: 16 questions that doctors use to figure out if you're a sociopath

As Lamm maps Barbie next to an average person, the differences become obvious quickly.

Barbie is huge! She is 5 inches taller than the average young woman.

Barbie isn't just a thin woman — her waist is almost half the size of an average woman's, just 18 inches.