Story and Photos By DAVID RUSSELL Setting up a shot through a camera lens does two things: It helps make for a better photo. But, it also registers that image on a file somewhere in one’s brain, so the scene can be recaptured time and again. Here are some flashes I love to relive from my 40-plus years of travel: ”In Israel, zooming in on the cave opening where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. ”Crossing from Pakistan into China at 17,000 feet in a creaky Russian bus, where the driver’s wife, from her ‘kitchen’ in the back, made blinis for us slathered with local farmer cheese and jam, served with hot tea. ”Driving the road from Dubrovnik to Zagreb on a gorgeous fall day, with the Swiss Alps above, a crystal river below, surrounded by golden foliage, we stopped at a small roadside restaurant where a goat was being spit-roasted. Parking our Yugo, we met the owner, indicating we wanted some. His wife rushed out, took the knife from her husband and cut us select portions, then invited us into her kitchen, where we helped to make a salad with veggies from her garden. As we ate, wife and husband brought a local wine to toast our friendship. All without one spoken word understood between us. ”A similar incident at the Fisherman’s Caf’ in Palermo: The owner was about to close. Spotting a framed U.S. $5 bill on the wall, I took one out and held it up. The owner smiled, seated us and dished out a wonderful calamari, then invited us into his spotless kitchen to select a swordfish steak that yesterday had been in the Mediterranean. He, too, toasted us with a local wine while collecting our $5 bill. ”My wife and I had read a Gourmet Magazine story about a special Sunday brunch at the Palumbo Hotel in Ravello, four winding miles up above our Amalfi hotel. We soon found the magnificent town square and hotel only to discover that William Styron and Gore Vidal had already taken the table we coveted, overlooking Le Mer. ”Enjoying Notre Dame’s magnificent stained-glass windows while listening to the grand organ at Vespers. The same glory viewing the magnificent Chagall Windows in the Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Israel. ”Being treated to turtle soup while boating down the Li River in China, with the turtle still in its shell. Also in China, one of our travelmates, a U.S. airline stewardess, couldn’t resist taking pictures inside our China Airliner which instead of overhead bins, had overhead racks, stacked with two-by-four boards and cages with chickens and snakes. ”Sharing a beer with 250,000 close friends at the Munich Oktoberfest. ”At Russia’s St. Petersburg airport, an anxious bus driver off-loaded us in the middle of the airfield at the stairway of an Aeroflot Jet, which wasn’t quite ready for us. There we were, wandering under the wings while huge jets passed us on all sides. When we finally boarded, the only ‘official’ was an elderly Babushka-clad woman with a feather duster. ”Duplicating Teddy Roosevelt’s charge up Cuba’s San Juan Hill to find only a caretaker and the cutest little boy you’ve ever seen, wondering who we crazy people were. ”’Following’ Van Gogh from Arles to Paris. Seeing all the places replicated on his magnificent canvases. Ditto the Lilies and the Bridge at Giverney when the light approximated what Monet saw. ”Sharing the Thai president’s unused ‘sofa’ seat during the rehearsal of an annual sound and light show, accompanied by one million mosquitoes ”Amidst hundreds of monkeys, climbing 365 stairs to reach a magnificent temple in Nepal. And then having to walk back down. At sunrise, photographing a fog-filled jungle before mounting an elephant for a photo tiger hunt. ”In a jeep, being five feet from a boulder in Tanzania where three lions slept. In Masai Mara, at predawn, spotting 18 lions on the horizon. Returning to camp through an elephant herd numbering 45. Stopping under a tree where a sleeping leopard was draped over a branch next to the remains of a Thompson gazelle. ”Reveling in a Venice sunset from the roof of the Daniella hotel. Slogging through a typical Venice ‘flood’ along with the locals. ”Finally, a ‘not-ready-for-prime-time’ Cook Islands tour, so poorly organized we actually spent three half-days learning how to open a coconut! The Post requested only 800 words for this article. But, my brain’s photo drawer is so filled with wonderful memory pictures, it could fill an entire Travel Tales issue. (Editor’s note: David Russell, who has had a long career as a writer/producer in radio, television, advertising and production, is currently a Mexican political creative consultant. He and his wife, Claryce, have been married 49 years and have lived in Pacific Palisades since 1974. Their three daughters all graduated from Palisades High.)
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