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 group of surfers ride the Bore Tide at Turnagain Arm on July 15, 2014 in Anchorage, Alaska. Alaskas most famous Bore Tide, occurs in a spot on the outside of Anchorage in the lower arm of the Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm, where wave heights can reach 6-10 feet tall, move at 10-15 mph and the water temperature stays around 40 degrees farenheit. This years Supermoon substantially increased the size of the normal wave and made it a destination for surfers. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

A cat walks past a Soyuz space ship installed at a museum, at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Tuesday, November 15, 2016. The start of the new Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled on early Friday, Nov. 18 local time. The Russian rocket will carry French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and U.S. astronaut Peggy Annette Whitson. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A Chinese tourist wears protective gloves as she holds a baby Siberian tiger as they pose for pictures at the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park on August 16, 2017 in Harbin, northern China. The center is one of two Siberian tiger parks in the Chinese province of Heilongjiang, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border with Russia. It is considered the world's largest for breeding the Siberian, or Amur, tiger which is listed as endangered by the World Wildlife Federation. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Performers participate in the Day of the Dead parade on Mexico City's main Reforma Avenue, Saturday, October 28, 2017. Mexico's capital is holding its Day of the Dead parade, an idea actually born out of the imagination of a scriptwriter for the James Bond movie “Spectre”. (Photo by Eduardo Verdugo/AP Photo)

A pale tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda) larva or caterpillar just after moulting on heather on Hankley Common, Surrey, England on April 30, 2019. (Photo by Gillian Pullinger/Alamy Stock Photo)

Zendaya arrives at the 25th Annual Critics' Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on January 12, 2020 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Reuters)

A Palestinian man demonstrates his parkour skills on a beach as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions ease in Gaza City on July 10, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)