Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

A humanoid robot named Kansei, meaning “sensibility” in Japanese, makes a facial expression depicting “happiness”, next to the word “Love” during a demonstration at a laboratory of Meiji University's Robot and Science Institute in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo in this June 4, 2007 file photo. Three-fourths of robot installations over the next decade are expected to be concentrated in four areas: transportation equipment, including the automotive sector; computer and electronic products; electrical equipment and machinery. Labor costs have climbed in countries such as China that have been popular for outsourcing production, while technological advances for robots allow them to be more flexible and perform more tasks. (Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)

An original 1850 puntabout rugby football is displayed at Rugby School in central England, March 18, 2015. Rugby School is known as the spiritual home of rugby. According to a popular version of the game's origins, it was on the school's playing field that in 1823, in a game that could loosely be described as football but was more like a brawl, a pupil called William Webb Ellis caught the ball and, instead of kicking towards the goal, sprinted with it – breaking the code and laying the way for modern-day rugby. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)

People look at a funnel cloud formed near the beach in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, September 21, 2020. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

An orphaned giraffe nuzzling a wildlife keeper at Sarara camp in Kenya, one of 70 pictures being sold by Prints for Nature (printsfornature.com) to raise money for work by the Conservation International charity. This giraffe was rehabilitated and returned to the wild, as a number of others have done before him. Right now, giraffe are undergoing what has been referred to as a silent extinction. Current estimates are that giraffe populations across Africa have dropped 40 percent in three decades, plummeting from approximately 155,000 in the late 1980s to under 100,000 today. (Photo by Ami Vitale/National Geographic)

Dana Friedman, a trial lawyer who has spent 6 months of each year growing out his beard for his annual appearance as Santa Claus since 2001, greets children outside wearing masks as a precautionary measure at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center in Queens as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in New York City, U.S., December 6, 2020. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

Jesus Taborda and Sabrina Amuchastegui compete in the final round of the Tango World Championship stage category, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, September 25, 2021. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

An Indian Hindu married woman offers prayers during Karva Chauth festival in Jammu, India, Sunday, October 24, 2021. Hindu married women decorate their hands with henna, wear colorful bangles and observe a fast to pray for the longevity and well being of their husbands during this festival. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)