A woman offers a prayer at Pashupatinath Temple during the Teej festival in Kathmandu, Nepal September 4, 2016. During this festival, married Hindu women observe day-long fast and pray for a happy married life while those unmarried pray for a good husband. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A bride gets her make-up done before the start of a mass marriage ceremony in Kolkata, India, February 14, 2016. A total of 150 tribal Hindu, Muslim and Christian couples from various villages across the state took their wedding vows on Sunday during the day-long mass marriage ceremony organised by a social organisation, the organisers said. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Members of the Baby Dolls, a traditional Mardi Gras social club, dance during a second line parade honoring music legend Fats Domino, in New Orleans, Wednesday, November 1, 2017. The thousand-strong group marched and danced from Vaughn's Lounge to Domino's former home in the Lower 9th Ward. Domino, a New Orleans native, died this past week. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

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.

An Army Sikorsky VH-34s Choctaw helicopter once used to transport President Dwight D. Eisenhower sits in a field at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group boneyard Thursday, May 14, 2015 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz. President Eisenhower became the first chief executive to be transported by helicopter. Presidents Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy were transported in VH-34 helicopters and VH-34's served as “Army One” from 1958 through 1963. (Photo by Matt York/AP Photo)

Zhao Deli waves as he pilots his self-made “flying scooter” in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, 12 August 2018 (issued 16 August 2018). Inspired by a cartoon he watched as a child, Zhao Deli sold off his apartment in pursuit of his dream of building a flying scooter. (Photo by Aleksandar Plavevski/EPA/EFE)

Pumpkins and a mock up skull are seen ahead of Halloween at Wilmersdorfer Strasse shopping street, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Berlin, Germany, October 26, 2020. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)