That really is not an owl, or a mask. It's an amazing photo of the main dome and side domes of the Hagia Sophia/Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. Sadly, I didn't take that one. The other photo is of ancient Pergamon (Pegramum), famous in its day for it's medical and psychiatric facilities.

I'll retired on a couple of years and I'm making a personal scrapbook of the places I want to go and the things I want to do. I want to see the whales, manta rays, and dolphins in the wild. Maybe I'll go by freighter rather than cruise ship so I ca