Young Buddhist novice monks play at a Tibetan nomadic summer grazing area on July 24, 2015 on the Tibetan Plateau in Yushu County, Qinghai, China. Tibetan nomads face many challenges to their traditional way of life including political pressures, forced resettlement by China's government, climate change and rapid modernization. The Tibetan Plateau, often called “The Roof of the World”, is the world's highest and largest plateau. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

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.

Hucul horses play in the wild meadows and forests near Odrzychowa in southeastern Poland on October 18, 2014. Huculs, a primitive breed of horse, escaped total extinction due to the efforts of scientists and Polish farmers. (Photo by Janek Skarzynski/AFP Photo)

Children wearing uniforms hold toy guns during a military parade game on China's National Day, at Beyou World, a centre children where can experience different kinds of professions, in Beijing, October 1, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Elderly women wait for customers as they sell their self-made food products at a street market, with a graffiti depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin on the wall of a house seen in the background, in the town of Kashira, outside Moscow, Russia on October 10, 2017. (Photo by Andrey Volkov/Reuters)

A woman picks marigold flowers used to make garlands and offer prayers, before selling them to the market for the Tihar festival, also called Diwali, in Kathmandu, Nepal on October 17, 2017. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A mother raise her glass filled with 2017 Beaujolais Nouveau wine as she holds her child in a colored hot water “wine bath” at Hakone Kowakien Yunessun hot spring resort in Hakone, west of Tokyo, Japan, 16 November 2017, on the day of the Beaujolais Nouveau official release. With Germany and the United States, Japan is a major market for the Beaujolais Nouveau. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)