A special Gallery today....3 saints from Greece and 3 animals from Iceland.

About my 2 trips: First I spent a couple weeks living on a Russian expedition ship. We circumnavigated Iceland, stopping at small towns and villages along the coast. We also sailed north to stop at the isolated island of Jan Mayen, home of the northernmost active volcano in the world. Had planned on observing the solar eclipse at sea, but stormy weather prevented it.

Second, I spent a couple weeks in Greece, first on the island of Crete where I presented my paper on the Hiptop Nation Halloween Hunt at the 10th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. It was very well received. Jenny Preece was in the audience and really liked it. She's written some fanastic stuff about online communities, and I hope to collaborate with her on some future research. After Crete, I spent some time in the Cyclades, stopping on Santorini (the most beautiful island in the world, in my opinion). I bought a beautiful piece of art by Yorgos Kypris at the Gallery on Santorini, but because of it's size I had to have it shipped to the USA. Once I get it, I'll post some pics of it here. It's strange, but definitely not small. :P

Here are the pics:

1) A stuffed and mounted Icelandic Raven. Ravens were introduced to Iceland by the Vikings arriving from Norway. Apparently, the Vikings always kept a pair of Ravens on their ships to help them find land when exploring.

2) A stuffed and mounted Icelandic Puffin. Puffins are all along the coasts of Iceland. They next in holes in the cliffs during the spring, and spend most of their lives on the open seas. People commonly eat them (they taste like duck...yum).

3) A vertebra from a seal, found on the beach of Jan Mayen. I found the whole skeleton of the seal (minus the skull), and brought home a lot of other pieces as well.

Hrm...I never declared these items when I returned to the USA. Probably breaking some "animal products" rules bringing them in. But none of these critters are endangered, so I don't really see the problem. O well. Don't ask, don't tell. :P

4) Small Byzantine icon painting of Saint Nicholas (got it in Crete).

5) Small Byzantine icon painting of Saint George (got it in Crete).

6) Small Bysantine icon painting of Saint John the Baptist (got it in Crete).

That's it for now. More later.