Albania
I traveled with journalists to Albania in April 1995 to explore a country that had been very closed off and had few cars on the road even in its capital of Tirana, most cars were for government officials. We also traveled to the port in Durres and saw the concrete bunkers that dotted the coastline. I traveled again in October 1996 to cover 2 stories: a Polio epidemic for UNICEF; and a blood feud story in the mountains of Theth. I traveled one more time in June 1998 to cover the ethnic Albanians fleeing over the mountains into Albania from Kosovo for UNHCR, when talk of a war/conflict was beginning in Kosovo.
Montenegro
I traveled to Montenegro in June 1997 and July 2001 to visit the beautiful coastal towns and beaches, such as Budva, Sveti Stefan, Herceg Novi, Perast, Kotor (a UNESCO protected town) for a travel story for Associated Press and other publications. I also covered a story in July 2001 in the capital of Podgorica for Associated Press of gypsy/Roma refugees that had fled (pushed out of) Kosovo after being accused by ethnic Albanians of cooperating with Serbs in the war/conflict in Kosovo. They were housed in a former military training camp in Podgorica.
Romania
I traveled to Romania several times to cover the following stories: the beautiful painted monasteries of the Bukovina region of Romania and also Dracula’s castle in Brasov in October 1995; a story on the rampant problem of homeless street children and stray dogs in Bucharest in August 1997; and a cyanide spill into the Tisza river in February 2000 from a gold mining treatment camp in northern Romania (Baia Mare) that resulted in the killing of all fish in a river that spanned three countries, including Hungary and Serbia.
Homeless street children (some sniffing glue to kill hunger pains) and stray dogs were a rampant problem in Bucharest in August 1997.
Hungary
I lived in Budapest, Hungary from December 1993 until March 2002. I photographed a wide variety of cultural events, parties, sites, and news and cultural stories that spanned that time period.
