A woman photographs “Super Space Titan Kitty” by Colin Christian at the “Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty” museum exhibit in honor of Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary, at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California October 10, 2014. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

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.

Sumo wrestlers compete during the annual “Honozumo” ceremonial sumo tournament dedicated to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, April 18, 2016. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

Women practice swimming with mermaid tails at AquaMermaid swimming school, a mermaid training school in Chicago, United States on March 19, 2017. Participants are fulfilling their lifelong ambitions of becoming mermaids with a new type of fitness mermaid swimming. (Photo by Bilgin S. Amaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A workman sweeping the highest sidewalk in the world, the 81st story of the Empire State Building, the world's tallest building, to the top of which the greatest dirigible “Los Angeles” will attempt to moor, New York, New York, early 1930s. This photo was made 1,248 feet above street level. (Photo by Adam Glickman/Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

Indian passengers travel on a local train in New Delhi, India, October 2017. Constructed in 1975 to bypass the crowded and passenger-heavy Old Delhi, New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations, the railway line once used to be the lifeline of the capital. (Photo by Ankur Dutta/Barcroft Media)

The Boeing 747-8 cargo plane pilot has seen thunderstorms, shooting stars and sunsets from up above the clouds and has looked down on mountaintops, carpets of cloud and cities lit up at night. The incredible pictures give a glimpse of the view from the pilots are treated to every day. Here: Shooting stars over India. (Photo by Christiaan van Heijst/Caters News Agency)

These Northern Lights “rainbows” have turned the sky greener than the Earth below. Vitaly Istomin, 26, spent several nights in freezing conditions under the stars in northern Russia’s Khibiny Mountains to capture the aurora’s “rainbows”. (Photo by Vitaly Istomin/Caters News Agency)