Women wear the traditional costume of the Alto Tio Diego carnival during the Women's Afro-Mestizo Carnival of Alto Tio Diego on February 11, 2024 in Veracruz, Mexico. Alto Tio Diego is a small town near the State capital Xalapa where every year inhabitants celebrate their traditional carnival. Women of the town demanded a special day for them to parade and few years ago, they started to do it by walking through the streets wearing traditional costumes and masks (mostly of animals) but the attires have evolved to more modern characters. (Photo by Hector AD Quintanar/Getty Images)

A follower of the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda pays tribute for Iemanja, goddess of the sea, in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil December 29, 2017. Hundreds of practitioners of Brazil's Afro-Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda faiths have gathered at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach to honor Yemanja. Worshippers were mostly dressed in white as they launched their offerings to Iemanja: small boats with flowers and bowls with candles and fruits. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

A man wears a busho mask and a costume made of sheep pelt while climbing up a ladder outside a barn in Mohacs, Hungary, 20 February 2020, on the first day of carnival. The traditional Busho carnival, which marks the end of winter, dates back to the 16th century. According to local legend, members of an ethnic South Slavic group living in Mohacs at the time dressed up in similar costumes and wore wooden masks to scare away Ottoman invaders, who mistook them for demons. (Photo by Tamas Soki/EPA/EFE)

People enjoy carnival while shouting slogans of female empowerment and anti harrassment in Sao Paulo, Brazil on January 28, 2018. The carnival is marked by a lot of fun, but also has space to talk about more serious things – without losing the good mood. Parading for the first time in São Paulo, the Vaca Profana block proposed a reflection on sieges and machismo. (Photo by Cris Faga/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Revelers look at a cellphone during the annual street block party know as “Explode Coracao” on the third day of Carnival on February 19, 2023 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. According to the São Paulo City Council, during Carnival week more than 500 street blocks (blocos de rua) are held and more than 15 million people are expected to participate in them. Created in 2017, Explode Coracao is one of the most popular street blocks and attracted 150,000 revelers in its last edition, before the pandemic, in 2020. (Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)

Girls in swimsuits participate in the Grelka Fest at the ski resort Sheregesh in Tashtagolsky District of Kemerovo Oblast, Russia on April 15, 2018. Skiers and snowboarders from around the world marked the end of the 2017-18 winter season. Wearing bikinis and bathing shorts a total of 1,525 claimed a new Russian record for the daring downhill escapade – in a temperature of around 5ºC. In fact, more have taken part in this GrelkaFest event in the past, but not during an official record attempt. (Photo by Kemerovo Online/The Siberian Times)

The selfie is the most popular photography trend of the internet today. It's gotten so popular, in fact, that even our beloved feline friends have started to catch on. I dare you to keep the smile off your face for this one!

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.