War is never pretty. The images of war that we see on the news are always horrible but they're even worse when you've seen what things were like before the conflicts started.
In 1989, I was fortunate enough to travel to what is now called "the former Yugoslavia". All I knew of Yugoslavia then was that it was the country I needed to pass through by car to get from Austria to Greece, and the only one I was required to get entrance and exit visa to visit.
At that time I thought of it as one country. Now I look at a map and see that I traveled Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Kosovo with my final day in Skopie, Macedonia. This was where a young entrepreneur was waiting in my hotel lobby to show me how nicely he had washed my car, for a fee of course.
Since then, I have heard of bombings happening in beautiful places I traveled through. Here in Canada, we are so fortunate to have never had a major conflict on our own doorstep. We never have to worry that someone may come in the night forcing us from our home and maybe even our country.
I never thought then that at the same time I would be looking forward to ringing in the millennium, some of the people who allowed me to witness a small part of their lives would be running for their lives.
I have put these photos together to help people understand that this area has not always been war torn. I hope the beauty of this country and the strenght of its people will endure the past and present conflicts.
Photos and Story by Stephen MacGillivray
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Photo Descriptions:Click on these three thumbnails to go to their own page with captions. The top photo is early morning light creating an awe-inspiring view of the mountains by the town of Kotor in Montenegro. The bottom photo is the marina in the town of Hvar on the Island of Hvar in Croatia. If you would like to see how this looked layed out in the paper click here.
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