my friends need to be punished

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gokyay-chess-museum

Akın Gökyay, chairman of the board of the leading Turkish office furniture company Nurus, is an avid chess enthusiast who began collecting chess sets in 1975. With significant financial means, he established a foundation to support his collection, which is housed in a beautifully restored building representative of the traditional Ankara houses of the Hamamönü district.

On the ground floor, visitors can explore a variety of themed chess sets, from European comic heroes such as Asterix and Lucky Luke to curious sets commemorating the Gulf War, featuring figures like Donald Rumsfeld, Tony Blair, George Bush, and Saddam Hussein. There are also many exquisitely crafted sets made from diverse materials and in various artistic styles.

Upstairs, the collection showcases chess sets depicting peoples of many nationalities. Additional spaces include rooms for playing chess, a café with a charming courtyard, and a well-stocked gift shop.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gokyay-chess-museum

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-seal-woman-kopakonan

On the island of Kalsoy stands a statue that, according to local legend, has cursed the town of Mikladalur.

The legend goes that seals were once human and every year on the 12th day after Christmas at dusk, they come ashore, shed their skins and revel in human form until sunrise, where they don their seal skins again and return to the ocean.

One fisherman from Mikladalur, having heard this legend, hid behind a large rock and observed the transformation. He particularly noticed one who transformed into a beautiful young woman.

Out of desire, the young fisherman stole her skin and waited for them to return to the water. The other seals, including her mate, watched on in horror as the fisherman approached her, carrying her skin.

From that moment, she was bound to him, as long as he had her skin. They married and had children but she chafed under her new lot in life. However, one day the fisherman forgot to lock the chest her skin was secured in, and while he was out in the boat, she left him and their children behind, rejoining her family in the sea.

Time passed, but his fury did not subside, and even after she begged him to not attack her family, he and the villagers organized a seal hunt, slaughtered her mate and their young seal pups and then ate them.

The seal woman returned to the village as a banshee, and cursed the villagers and their descendants, telling them that their drowned would be able to hold hands and dance around the island by the time her curse ends.

The 3-meter bronze and stainless-steel statue was erected in 2014.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-seal-woman-kopakonan

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tintagel-dark-age-settlement

Tintagel Castle is most famously known as the rumored birthplace of King Arthur, but the history of the site stretches back much further. While most of the ruins remaining today date back to the 13th century, evidence, including markers and bits of pottery, has been found of Roman activity during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, and archeological digs have revealed that it was the seat of a thriving Cornish settlement from the 5th to the 7th century AD.

The site was most likely one of various strongholds of the then-rulers of Dumnonia in the region. Its location on an island, connected to the mainland only by a footbridge, would have made it highly defensible. The presence and layout of the site's buildings suggest that Tintagel was more than just a defensive outpost—it was a bustling community with trade links and a local industry.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the history of Tintagel is the evidence of trade with the wider Mediterranean world. Pieces of Mediterranean pottery and glassware have been found at the site - the number of fragments of high-quality tableware uncovered here are by far the largest of anywhere else in Western Britain, suggesting the wealth and importance of the community. In exchange for these goods, it is presumed that tin, a key resource produced in this part of Britain during the period, was exported to ports in the Mediterranean. 

Little evidence remains of the fate of Tintagel after the mid-7th century AD, until about 1138, when Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain highlighted it as the alleged birthplace of the legendary King Arthur. While there is no definitive link between the Dark Age settlement and Arthur, the discoveries of Tintagel's flourishing during the 5th to 7th centuries show that it could indeed have been an important locale during the time that King Arthur would have been alive. Inspired by its literary fame, the site was then purchased by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, younger brother of King Henry III, in 1233 - the castle he built was already in ruins by the 14th century, but the legend of the site continues to capture visitors' imaginations to this day. 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tintagel-dark-age-settlement