Browse content similar to War and Peace. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Throughout most of my lifetime, | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
an Iron Curtain has divided Eastern Europe from the West | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
preventing me from really getting to know it. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
I've flown over it, I've peered at bits of it. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
But I've never really travelled through it. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
Now the Iron Curtain has lifted, I am going to make up for lost time | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
and explore the other half of my continent, Europe. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
Here on the Slovenian Alps, I'm turning my back on Western Europe | 0:01:14 | 0:01:19 | |
and heading east to a world which is changing at a remarkable speed. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, the number of countries in Eastern Europe has doubled. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:28 | |
Ten have already become members of the European Union, | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
and even countries like Turkey are keen to join them. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
What lies ahead is, for me, a voyage of discovery, | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
an exploration of the people, the places, the mood and the spirit | 0:01:39 | 0:01:43 | |
that is transforming old lands into a new Europe. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
As we meander through the tranquil countryside of Slovenia, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
it's hard to believe that this was the country whose walk out from a Communist conference in 1990 | 0:02:43 | 0:02:49 | |
began the break-up of Yugoslavia, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
one of the cornerstones of post-war Europe, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
and put six new European countries on the map. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
I'll be travelling through them, to Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:06 | |
and beyond them to the mysterious land of Albania. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:11 | |
CHURCH BELLS TOLL | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
My first port of call is Slovenia's southern neighbour, Croatia, | 0:03:13 | 0:03:18 | |
whose beautiful coastline stretches languorously along the Adriatic. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:23 | |
Like many of the countries of New Europe, Croatia has a very old history. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
Here in the port of Split, off a square built at the time of Napoleon, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
Goran Golovko teaches children about the city's most famous son, the Roman emperor Diocletian. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:38 | |
HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:03:38 | 0:03:42 | |
Goran's way of bringing history to life is to portray | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
the Romans as just one of the many peoples who've occupied Croatia over the years, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:50 | |
very much like present-day tour groups | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
that flock here every summer. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
And they can see girls wearing tanga... Beautiful! | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
Of all the ex-Yugoslav countries, Croatia is the one that seems | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
most comfortable with international attention. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
Qu'est que c'est? | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
Oui, oui... | 0:04:12 | 0:04:14 | |
You could say the idea of East and West Europe began here. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:21 | |
It was Diocletian who took the momentous decision to divide the Roman Empire in two. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:27 | |
He ruled the East from a mighty palace here in Split, which is still inhabited. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:32 | |
The palace is still alive, people still live within it. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
And we can see architectural changes from medieval time onwards. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
There hasn't been any attempt by municipal authorities to get rid of all the parasitic buildings | 0:04:43 | 0:04:49 | |
on this beautiful thing, because many people would think that was a bit of architectural desecration. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:56 | |
Well, not any more. This is also part of traditional culture. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
This is how Split was developed. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
That washing looks very old indeed! | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
Yes, it's Roman actually. They didn't advertise it but it's... | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
-It's still not dry. -But it's still there. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
So now we are at Peristil, which is the main square of the palace | 0:05:14 | 0:05:19 | |
where the emperor was appearing to his subjects. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
And we see this great colonnade of Corinthian-style pillars. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:28 | |
This extraordinary feeling, you've got modern buildings, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:32 | |
-with aluminium windows. -Yes, this is my bank over there. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
That's your bank, indeed. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
Where I shake in front of my bank manager. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
I don't think I've been anywhere quite like this | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
where you get the feeling of a great empire which has just crumbled, | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
and been absorbed again by somebody else. And been adapted. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
'I spy a piece of more recent Croatian history, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
'the name of the local football club.' | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
Famous name for us football lovers. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
-Split symbols. -Yeah. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
If you are born into being a Hajduk fan, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
then you are a Hajduk fan for the rest of your life. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
The word "Hajduk" means a bandit, but in the good sense of bandit | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
as patriot, fighting for his country against Venetians and Ottoman Turks. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:16 | |
Goran takes me to meet Zdravko, a modern Croatian patriot | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
who also happens to run one of the best restaurants in town. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
Hello! Yes! | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
Are you happy the way it's happening now with the tourists here? | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
Of course, absolutely. You see, I always say to everybody, I'm very, very happy. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
Of course I'm very critical. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:36 | |
But imagine, living, the fall of the Communism, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:41 | |
the creation of the free Croatia, modern Croatian state, for the first time in modern history. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:46 | |
Winning the war and still I'm here, at the age of 60. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:50 | |
You know, it's... Croatia is a state... It's a fantastic feeling. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:56 | |
Of course it's very emotional. | 0:06:56 | 0:06:58 | |
On the other side, I am of course critical, why not? | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
At the very beginning, I was very, very mild, because my Croatia was like a baby in cradle. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:07 | |
Now you can kick it in the... You know! | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
Now you can take it apart a bit! | 0:07:10 | 0:07:11 | |
In the '90s, in the war, I wouldn't do that. Now, I'm very critical. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
You sound as though you were a bit unhappy in the Communist times? | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
You know, Communism, I didn't like Communism because it was very limiting. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:25 | |
For work. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:27 | |
You see, people felt much more secure in ex-Yugoslavia | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
because you get a job, and you keep it for life. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
You get what you get, but, you see, they didn't have | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
so many possibilities to work. Like this one. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
Like I'm working now, you see. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
What sort of things define Croatia now, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
its sort of... Its role in the world? | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
Yes, you see, when we look at it now, | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
-it is the first time in history that we have our modern state. -Yeah. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
For example, in ex-Yugoslavia I could not express my patriotism as freely as I do now. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:06 | |
It has to be some kind... It fit into Yugoslavia, whatever. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
But now, I am Croatian. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
It's a fantastic feeling that you can say openly | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
without any fear, without any consequences. That's the point. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
These days, self-expression breaks out just about anywhere in Split. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
Improvised, energetic and, after a few beers, embarrassingly irresistible. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:32 | |
'Can't wait to get home and tell the wife about this!' | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
One of the most seductive attractions of Croatia are her islands. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:06 | |
I take the ferry to Hvar, which comes highly recommended. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
What can we expect to see there? | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
-A paradise. -A paradise? Oh, we are not allowed to go to paradise. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
You are, you are. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
In what way? Just the look of the place? | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
I mean the sands, the flowers, the flowers on the islands, the colours, you will love it. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:27 | |
I'm sure you will love it, everyone does. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
Hvar beckons you before you even reach it, | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
with a heady scent of lavender, oregano and the broom that seems to cover the island. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:46 | |
Attractive as this might be to the tourists, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
it hasn't done much for the locals who have, over the years, left in droves to find work abroad. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:54 | |
One man who says he'll never leave is Igor Zivanovic. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
Raconteur, bon viveur and all-round character, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:07 | |
Igor has his own bar and restaurant in a back street of Stari Grad. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
This is the premier house, because the family is here 500 years. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:16 | |
It is steeped in history. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
History. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
Do you know about all that slow food that they write about in Italy? | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
Sometimes, sometimes. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
Sometimes when we are friends in the bar and we are drinking wine, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
we are talking about the wine, about my grandmother, about your grandmother, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:38 | |
about the time when you were 16 or 17. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
And the stupid tourist, that's really stupid, not the friend, he wants to eat something. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:48 | |
I say, if you have 20 kroner, you can go to fast food. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
-I have no time. -So if you want a quick meal, don't come in here. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
You are the Basil Fawlty of slow food. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
I enjoy it! To cook, to make the joke. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
What can I do for you now? | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
You can bring me a glass of white wine from the island of Hvar, please. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
-OK. -There on the bar, my glass is on the left, yours is on the right. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
It may take a few hours but I will do my best. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
HE READS LABEL ALOUD | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
-Igor, is this all right? -And where is your glass? | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
Well, I've got a bottle and a glass. You are the most important person at the moment. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
I'm taking it slowly today. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
According to your philosophy, there was no need to hurry. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
There you are. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:37 | |
-One for you, one for me. -Is this the right one? OK. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
This is the wine from the island here. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
-Oh, right. -This is a table wine. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
The meal, peppery lamb stew and fresh grilled sardines is delicious, | 0:11:45 | 0:11:50 | |
and I find myself helplessly drawn into Igor's world, which includes opinions on everything, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:56 | |
from Marshal Tito to McDonald's. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
If you are going to try your own you should obey and accept the terms. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:02 | |
If they make here McDonald's, I will hang. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
You'd hang! | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
The first McDonald's martyr! | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
There's clocks all over. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
They are all at 3.04. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:17 | |
Look, there's some more. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
They're all at 3.04? | 0:12:20 | 0:12:21 | |
Why? | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
This is a story, my dear. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
In that time, it's my ex-president who is dying. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
-Tito died at 3.04? -3.04. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:35 | |
Maybe not. But so it was on TV. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
They said, now he is dying. And then I put all the clocks on 3.04. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:45 | |
He was the biggest hedonist in the history of modern civilisation. He was wonderful. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:52 | |
'After our lunch, Igor takes me out of the town to see the farms | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
'deserted by those who couldn't make these stony fields pay.' | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
They are from 16th century, 16th-17th century. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
This is from the 17th century. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:07 | |
Yes, this one. Because you can know in the middle, you notice this triangle, how do you say? | 0:13:07 | 0:13:12 | |
-Headstone? -Headstone. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
-Bravo. You know everything about our architecture! -I've cracked it! | 0:13:14 | 0:13:19 | |
At last, something I know about! | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
-Would you be happy to stay here in this paradise for the rest of your life? -What have you said? | 0:13:23 | 0:13:29 | |
You have said "paradise". | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
Then the question is stupid, I am sorry. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:33 | |
Because if this is paradise, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
then you mustn't make the question. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
-You have come to the end of your life. -Normally. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
-Well, somebody called it paradise. -You have said paradise. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
A girl I met on the boat. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:46 | |
You are for a short time here. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:50 | |
I am sure that you will come back. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:52 | |
I feel I've just got out in time. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
There was something dangerously tempting about Hvar that made me want to stop the journey right there. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:02 | |
But the local fishermen make sure my ride across the water to Bosnia is as painless as possible. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:08 | |
Fantastic. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:12 | |
Little anchovies. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:16 | |
OK. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
Lovely. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
A half pint of white wine, freshly-caught anchovies, and oil made by the captain. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:27 | |
This is the way to get around the world. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:30 | |
I'm afraid someone has to do it. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
-U zdravlje! -U zdravlje! -U zdravlje! | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
It's a short-lived celebration. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
Beyond the mountains lies Bosnia-Herzegovina, where things are a lot more complicated. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:48 | |
What I least expected to find in a country which probably suffered more from the break-up of Yugoslavia | 0:14:52 | 0:14:58 | |
than any other, was a quiet line of pilgrims from all over the world, wending their way up a mountainside | 0:14:58 | 0:15:05 | |
to a place where, 26 years ago, a group of local teenagers met and spoke with the Virgin Mary. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:13 | |
What those children saw has transformed the village of Medjugorje | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
into a boom town which has already attracted 25 million visitors. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:59 | |
Despite the fact the Pope has refused to endorse the visions, or apparitions as they call them here, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:04 | |
Medjugorje is now the third most popular Catholic site in Europe. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:10 | |
Mirjana Dragicevic, is one of the children who saw the Virgin... and still does. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:25 | |
She's in her forties now, married to a builder and living to all intents and purposes a quiet suburban life. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:32 | |
She told me what happened on the mountain when she was 15. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
At first we just ran away. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
-We didn't go close. -Were you frightened? | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
Yes, because I didn't know what happening to me. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
Nobody explained me that this can happen. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
Because our religious life in Communism was being in the homes. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:51 | |
Having had this experience was there a change in you, did you feel different somehow? | 0:16:51 | 0:16:56 | |
I understand that happening to me something beautiful. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
Because to be with Blessed Mary, I think that this is like in Heaven. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:04 | |
Because give you one example, I am the mother of two daughters and like all normal mother | 0:17:04 | 0:17:09 | |
I'd give my life for them, but when I am with Blessed Mary even my children don't exist. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:15 | |
It's only inside of myself the wish that she bring me with her. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
And you can imagine how big pain is when she is leaving and I see that I'm here on the earth. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:26 | |
And I always need to pray one hour, two hours in my room to be able to understand that this must be. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:33 | |
-This is what God wants. -Do you still see the Blessed Mary? | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
Yeah, she tell me every 18th March in all my life | 0:17:36 | 0:17:41 | |
that I will have this apparition every 18th March. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
But she also said that I will have apparition every second day of each month. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:49 | |
But she didn't say how long. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
And every second of each month is most like a prayer for those who don't feel love of God yet. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:59 | |
What we saying unbelievers. But Blessed Mary never say unbelievers. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
Does she call you by your Christian name? | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
She always saying, my dear children. Always. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
Is it a burden to have the weight of these apparitions upon you? | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
Is it a burden to be the person who has seen the Blessed Virgin Mary? | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
If you seeing one time the face of Blessed Mary you cannot say | 0:18:16 | 0:18:20 | |
it is difficult for you, because when you are seeing the love, | 0:18:20 | 0:18:25 | |
the pain, everything on the face of her for all her children. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
And how I can say that for me it's difficult when I think what's she doing for all of us - | 0:18:29 | 0:18:35 | |
when I saying "us" I'm thinking of all the world - | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
how I can say what I'm doing is difficult for me, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
I cannot say, because she is the one really doing everything. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:46 | |
Mirjana and her friends have made Medjugorje into a focal point for Catholics. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:51 | |
My next stop, Mostar, has because of recent events, became equally important to the Muslims. | 0:18:53 | 0:19:00 | |
CRIES AND CLAPPING | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
In November 1993, in one of the most callous acts of the war, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
this bridge behind me, which has stood for over 400 years | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
and has now been immaculately restored, was destroyed by Bosnian Croat guns within seconds. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:24 | |
It was a single act, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:39 | |
one of many which, following the disintegration of Yugoslavia, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
brought terrible suffering to a land | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
where Muslims and Christians once lived in peace. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
And, so this is the peak. Wow! | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
The highest peak in Mostar. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
I feel my stomach is down there already. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
Oh, my God! Unbelievable. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
The re-building of the bridge has enabled members of the select Mostari Divers Club | 0:20:02 | 0:20:08 | |
to resume the perilous tradition of hurling themselves 70ft, into just 15ft of water. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:15 | |
And the idea is you've got to jump well clear of the bridge, really throw yourself out. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
-You have to be away, you have to throw yourself out from the bridge. -Yes. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
Bravo! | 0:20:27 | 0:20:28 | |
CHEERS AND WHISTLES | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
The destruction of the bridge became a symbol of the pitiless brutality of the Balkan wars of the 1990s. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:40 | |
My friend Kamel and his family lived through those times. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
What was it like when this bridge was destroyed, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:48 | |
what was the immediate psychological effect? | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
Was everybody distraught? | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
For we Mostarians it was like they have lost their child | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
because they had been born in Mostar, they'd been raised in Mostar. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:05 | |
They lived, they breathed, their first love. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:10 | |
Everything what Mostar represented, represented the bridge. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:15 | |
They felt like they lost their child or they lost their father or mother. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
That's how people who really loved this city and this bridge felt about it. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:25 | |
But it was only one act in a bitter struggle. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
As races and religions jostled for power, this city of tolerance and tradition was torn apart. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:36 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
Looking out there now, Kamel, everything looks... | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
The wooded banks and the little terraces with their tables out. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:08 | |
Do you find it hard to remember that only a dozen years ago | 0:22:08 | 0:22:14 | |
there was such bloodshed around here, there was a war on? | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
I think that's really nice question and quite a bit hard for me. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:23 | |
Yes, it's beautiful. It's amazing nature, amazing structures, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:28 | |
amazing houses and people, of course. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
But going back 12 years, going back in 1993 when I was 14 years old, a teenager... | 0:22:32 | 0:22:39 | |
It looked really, how can I say, unrealistic to me. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:44 | |
Like that I would be, let's say, sitting today here | 0:22:44 | 0:22:49 | |
having discussion with you | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
because at that time I was more like, "OK, how to survive? | 0:22:52 | 0:22:58 | |
"Where to escape in case of bombing?", and so on. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:05 | |
I was, like, afraid, afraid for my future. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:11 | |
Afraid because we could not see an end to this bloodshed that we had here. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:18 | |
Before I left Mostar, I went with Kamel to one of the Muslim cemeteries, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:24 | |
where all the graves looked very new. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:28 | |
So many young lives ended in 1993. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
They all end with "1993". | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
That was the height of the fighting. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
That was the height of the fight. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
And... | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
Yes, it is... | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
But I would say one thing that I hope that these heroes haven't died in vain. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:48 | |
MAN SINGS DEVOTIONAL SONG | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
I'm going to be leaving Mostar by train, which is going to take me deep into the heart of Bosnia | 0:24:15 | 0:24:21 | |
and to the city that's perhaps more synonymous with all the events | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
that have happened in this area than any other...Sarajevo. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
This is the Mostar-Sarajevo Express. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
When Bosnia-Herzegovina rose from the ruins of Yugoslavia, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:37 | |
the various ethnic groups that made up the country - | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats - | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
felt vulnerable and began to fight to safeguard their territory. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:47 | |
Nowhere was the fight more prolonged and destructive than in the capital, Sarajevo. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:52 | |
I check in at the Holiday Inn, famous for being the only hotel | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
that journalists could stay at during the war. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
Frequently shelled, its most sought-after rooms | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
were those WITHOUT a view. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
So, Sarajevo from here is just a city in a most spectacularly beautiful location. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:16 | |
It's almost unbelievable to think | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
only a little more than ten years ago, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
they were coming to the end of the longest siege | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
in modern European history. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
There'd be no cars, no trams, even if you'd tried to cross that road | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
out there you'd be shot by snipers from any of these buildings. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
SHELLS EXPLODE | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
HEAVY EXPLOSIONS | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
Today, the wounds are healing, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
the trams are running and the city is gradually re-building. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:54 | |
Sarajevo is a tough, resilient working city whose inhabitants just want to get on with their lives. | 0:25:54 | 0:26:00 | |
Most of them don't want to talk about the war, though, sooner or later, everybody does. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
I take a tram to the outskirts of the city | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
to see one of the reasons why what happened only 12 years ago can't be easily forgotten. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:23 | |
The countryside where Sarajevans used to go for walks and picnics is now a death trap. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:31 | |
As a mine clearance squad works away I talk to its leader Damir, once a soldier himself. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:38 | |
This particular part was territory controlled by the Republic of Srpska army. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:43 | |
The Bosnian government army was further down in the field and further up the mountains. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:51 | |
So the Bosnian Serbs moved their armies... | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
Yeah, this was part of the sort of ring. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
And if you look at Sarajevo you can see the minebelt... | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
-Right along the hills. -Yeah, completely surrounding the city, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
enclosing down. And this the old centre. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
And we are now in this area, just under the mountain. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:14 | |
So during the conflict, at that time | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
we did not think about what will happen with Bosnia after. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:23 | |
But its effect that now we are paying the price, big price... | 0:27:23 | 0:27:27 | |
for use of land mines. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
When you see all this painstaking work that has to go on | 0:27:34 | 0:27:39 | |
and the endless amount of time it's going to take, how do you feel? | 0:27:39 | 0:27:44 | |
Do you feel very bitter about the people who laid these mines and created the situation? | 0:27:44 | 0:27:51 | |
It's difficult to say because I was part of it. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
And...for many people at that time | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
was perfectly normal to use land mines. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
The conflict was so long and so difficult that I understand why | 0:28:02 | 0:28:10 | |
if we had ten times more land mines those would be used. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
If you are facing a really powerful army on the other side and you expect something to happen, | 0:28:14 | 0:28:21 | |
you're going to use everything you have in stock just to stop them from entering your trenches. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:28 | |
And land mines were used for that. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:31 | |
Land mines were used as a protection for the front lines. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
It is sad that now we are paying the price for that. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:42 | |
But at that time we did not think about long-term. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:48 | |
At that time you had to think, I'm going to survive no matter what, | 0:28:48 | 0:28:52 | |
and I'm going to use everything I've got to protect myself. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:56 | |
It's such a beautiful place. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:00 | |
In England this would be a nature reserve. | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
They'd say, "Oh, it's wonderful!" | 0:29:03 | 0:29:04 | |
The farmers' agri-business hasn't cleared all this, we'd value all this. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
It's only here... because of the war really. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:13 | |
In a local school a Serbian theatre group, helped with money from UNICEF, | 0:29:18 | 0:29:23 | |
uses puppets and jokes to put across the deadly serious message that a walk in the woods could be fatal. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:30 | |
HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
The group, organised by Diana here, turn the class room into a courtroom | 0:29:37 | 0:29:42 | |
where land-mines and other weapons are put on trial, | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
with the children as the jury. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:46 | |
CHILDREN SHOUT OUT | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
Maybe half a kilometre or kilometre outside of this school you have lots of land mine fields. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:03 | |
Some of them are marked, some are not. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
So that's why we try to keep children aware that they should be careful where they go, | 0:30:06 | 0:30:12 | |
especially when it comes to going to nature, mountains. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
What sort of... | 0:30:15 | 0:30:17 | |
What does it do to the community to have these mines all around, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:21 | |
with the fields and the economy? | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
It's very negative impact on the economy. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:25 | |
This particular part of Bosnia was very famous for the wood-cutting industry. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:30 | |
People used to go to the forest to cut woods | 0:30:30 | 0:30:33 | |
or collect medical herbs or mushrooms. | 0:30:33 | 0:30:36 | |
Now they can no longer do it. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
Or they have a choice. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:40 | |
Either basically to starve because they have no income, | 0:30:40 | 0:30:45 | |
or to go to the forest and risk being killed or injured by the land mine. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
It's kind of depressing for the future of these children. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
You are right. That's why many families are leaving this town. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
This school was built for 600 pupils. Now it has a bit over than 120 pupils. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
That means some due to the war but mostly due to the economical reasons. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
Families are just leaving this community because they have no jobs. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
It's very sad, it's a beautiful part of Bosnia. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:16 | |
The good news is that thanks to work like this, the deaths from land mine accidents are less than 20 a year. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:23 | |
The bad news is that it may be another 70 years | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
before it's safe to walk in the Bosnian countryside again. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
Sarajevo's dramatic location, at the focal point of north-south and east-west trade routes, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:39 | |
has made it one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe. | 0:31:39 | 0:31:42 | |
Its years as part of the Ottoman Empire have left behind | 0:31:42 | 0:31:46 | |
a legacy of fine buildings and religious tolerance. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:50 | |
I walk through the old Turkish quarter with Ademir Kenovic, | 0:31:50 | 0:31:54 | |
a film director who kept working here throughout the war, risking his life | 0:31:54 | 0:31:59 | |
to fly in and out to show the world his films. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:01 | |
He's teaching me a lot about the city, including what street-wise Sarajevans should drink. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:07 | |
Here we can get our drinks. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:09 | |
Can you repeat it once again? | 0:32:09 | 0:32:11 | |
-Erm... Bo, bo... -Boza. -Boza. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:14 | |
Boza. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:16 | |
Boza, it turns out, is a fermented corn drink, a local speciality. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:20 | |
Good. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
So, you first tell me how it tastes. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:26 | |
-Bo, bo... -Boza. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:28 | |
Boza. I keep wanting to put an "R" in it. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
THEY TOAST | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
-Unusual taste, that. -Different. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
Lemony, almost a lemon taste but it's thicker than a lemon juice. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:47 | |
What was this area like during the siege, was it still operating, | 0:32:47 | 0:32:51 | |
were people still going to the mosque | 0:32:51 | 0:32:53 | |
-and still buying their Boza? -No, no, no. This was all closed. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
Most of these places were devastated. | 0:32:57 | 0:33:00 | |
It's empty most of the time because you can see the hills from these places. | 0:33:00 | 0:33:07 | |
Wherever you can see the hills from you wouldn't dare to go there. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
So there was sometimes very fast walking through these places | 0:33:11 | 0:33:16 | |
but it was mainly empty during the war. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:19 | |
People were hidden. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:20 | |
Did you feel... | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
very, very frustrated that this was happening to your city, a civilised city? | 0:33:24 | 0:33:29 | |
You have no electricity, no water, and it went on for three years. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:35 | |
-Yeah, but... -How did you keep yourself going? | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
I understand you being British using the mild words like "frustrated"! | 0:33:38 | 0:33:42 | |
It was more than outrageous. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:44 | |
Nobody here could believe what's wrong with all these people letting all these idiots, | 0:33:44 | 0:33:51 | |
maniacs, and that system to go and destroy the people. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:56 | |
And destroy all what's good about this place. | 0:33:56 | 0:34:00 | |
Mosques and churches were the first buildings to be repaired | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
after the war, reasserting Sarajevo's tolerant tradition | 0:34:05 | 0:34:09 | |
and helping to breathe new life into the old town. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
My last meal in Sarajevo is memorable... | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
for good wine, good humour, good company | 0:34:23 | 0:34:25 | |
and the enchanting sound of a singer called Amira, | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
whose voice seems to echo all the pain and pleasure of this remarkable country. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:34 | |
SHE SINGS IN LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:34:35 | 0:34:37 | |
It's only a few hours' drive from Sarajevo to Belgrade. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
Once the capital of all Yugoslavia, Belgrade is now, after defeats in three wars against the Croatians, | 0:35:31 | 0:35:37 | |
the Bosnians and the Kosovans, the capital of a Serbia | 0:35:37 | 0:35:42 | |
that's not only reduced but blamed squarely, if not fairly, for all the recent troubles. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:47 | |
Set impressively on the Danube, Belgrade bears few obvious scars of war. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:58 | |
I cadge a ride on the river with a charismatic DJ | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
and critic of the Milosevic regime who thinks I can sail. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
..As are we at the moment. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:07 | |
All right. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
OK. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:12 | |
The old arthritis! | 0:36:14 | 0:36:15 | |
'A man of many names, his current handle is, modestly, Rambo Amadeus.' | 0:36:15 | 0:36:21 | |
What was the war like for you, did you have to fight? | 0:36:21 | 0:36:24 | |
No, no, I was like...you know... | 0:36:24 | 0:36:28 | |
For me, it was like... | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
everybody tolerate me to be like | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
his brother, you know. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:36 | |
So you didn't raise a gun in anger? | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
No, quite opposite. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
We had in Belgrade here a huge... | 0:36:46 | 0:36:50 | |
peace organisation who struggled against... To stop the war. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:55 | |
It was quite a bad time in Serbia for a long time | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
because you were involved in a war which you couldn't win. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
It was a bad time for all of the former Yugoslavia. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:07 | |
If you throw your TV through the window you didn't notice anything. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:17 | |
But actually nobody throw TV through window. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:23 | |
Too precious. What was your feeling about Milosevic? | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
When he was alive and he was in power, I had some thoughts about him. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:36 | |
Now he is dead | 0:37:36 | 0:37:38 | |
and I don't want to tell anything. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
But you can ask around what I... | 0:37:41 | 0:37:46 | |
was thinking about him. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:49 | |
Somehow I think it is polite. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
Serbs know how to party and Belgrade is renowned for its music, | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
available at all kinds of clubs, at all hours of the night. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:07 | |
In one of the clubs I meet Tijana, a DJ and singer, and her friend Jelena, a TV presenter. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:20 | |
We end up back on the Danube, this time navigating the tricky waters of Serbia's recent past. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:33 | |
There was never a real war in Serbia | 0:38:33 | 0:38:36 | |
so you don't get the same feeling | 0:38:36 | 0:38:40 | |
as if you go to Bosnia or parts of Croatia that were at war. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:45 | |
-We've seen that. -So that's why... | 0:38:45 | 0:38:46 | |
Belgrade was always...always had this metropolitan glitter. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
It was the capital city of Yugoslavia, too. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:54 | |
I think the tradition of this city is, in a way, kept. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
There is also ironic side of this nation so everybody is making jokes about their history. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:04 | |
So you have absurd things like celebrating the battle that we lost. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:08 | |
Are things improving now? | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
I don't think that things are going to change for better with the new generations. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:16 | |
I think new generations are really... | 0:39:16 | 0:39:20 | |
Because they grew up in the way they did | 0:39:20 | 0:39:24 | |
and it's going to be really confusing and crazy. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:29 | |
I really don't know, I have no idea what is going to happen. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
So the prejudices are still there, you think? | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
I think there is not a big hatred towards other nations in Balkans. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:41 | |
Not even among the younger generations. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:45 | |
Although they grew up in a very aggressive environment, they did not actually know what was happening. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:52 | |
They were not aware. They just knew that there was a problem. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
But there is something that... this Serbian mentality that is always coming on the surface. | 0:39:56 | 0:40:04 | |
This fleeting impression tells me the Serbs are well aware of the contradictions of their history. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:10 | |
They're also rather proud of them. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
In the hope of finding transport on through the Balkans | 0:40:14 | 0:40:18 | |
I've come south to the busy port of Dubrovnik, jewel of the Adriatic. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:22 | |
Even this treasure was not spared the violence of the war. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
For half a year, Bosnian-Serb artillery shelled the city from up on these cliffs. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:31 | |
Thanks to its beauty and its harbours, Dubrovnik is once again flaunting its attractions, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:40 | |
though there are many locals who worry that their city is becoming too popular, | 0:40:40 | 0:40:46 | |
and that the cruise-liner crowds are tarnishing the very beauty they've come to see. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:53 | |
Someone who still loves the atmosphere of the old town is Edin Karamazov, | 0:40:55 | 0:41:00 | |
a Bosnian who plays the lute so sweetly that Sting has made an album with him. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:06 | |
But he's kept the busking job, just in case. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
Edin that is, not Sting. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:11 | |
As a storm, blowing up from nowhere, clears the stone-flagged streets of the city, | 0:41:38 | 0:41:43 | |
Edin, with true Balkan hospitality, offers me shelter in the apartment he's been lent by a friend. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:49 | |
Do you go back to Bosnia? | 0:42:08 | 0:42:10 | |
Oh, yeah. Of course. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
I just started loving Bosnia. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:16 | |
It's a nice country. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:18 | |
It's your homeland. | 0:42:18 | 0:42:20 | |
Do you feel at home there? | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
Oh, yes, let's say. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
Although I don't feel at home... nowhere. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:28 | |
At the moment. | 0:42:28 | 0:42:30 | |
Home is everywhere. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:33 | |
-You are indeed a wandering minstrel! -It seems so. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:37 | |
When I look back, | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
I travelled most of my life and I played everywhere | 0:42:42 | 0:42:46 | |
and I think it's...it is my way in the end. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:51 | |
Although I never wanted to be a minstrel. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
I think it is so. | 0:42:55 | 0:42:58 | |
On this suitably soulful note, my time here and in Croatia | 0:43:03 | 0:43:08 | |
and, indeed, in the former Yugoslavia has come to an end. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:11 | |
With some difficulty, we've found a boat that will take us down the coast to Albania. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:26 | |
Her captain is a part-time opera singer who's just played Judas | 0:43:26 | 0:43:30 | |
in the Zagreb production of Jesus Christ Superstar. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:34 | |
He doesn't really want to go to Albania, but he listens politely as I burble on. | 0:43:34 | 0:43:40 | |
I rather like the idea of the mystery of Albania. I like the fact of it being secret. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
Everywhere is opening up but it... | 0:43:44 | 0:43:46 | |
still seems to be the reclusive country in Europe. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:50 | |
It was one of the closest European country. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:55 | |
So in our minds, it is still some kind of black hole, really. | 0:43:55 | 0:44:01 | |
I would say maybe... | 0:44:01 | 0:44:02 | |
..50 people from Croatia even go there. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
It is very complications. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:09 | |
Some businessmen, they start maybe some little business or something like that. | 0:44:09 | 0:44:15 | |
The captain does everything he can to avoid reaching Albania too quickly, | 0:44:15 | 0:44:20 | |
raising only his smallest sail and singing a lot. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:25 | |
LOUD RENDITION OF "O Sole Mio" | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
I'm not complaining, but we've another 17 countries to get through. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:38 | |
-What's for supper? -Is that...? I heard some echo. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
Very good. Very good. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
Cooking supper gives him another reason to slow the boat down, but the mussel risotto is superb. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:14 | |
You can put this in the sea, back. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:18 | |
OK. I suppose that's... I don't want to lose any risotto. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:21 | |
I accept now that the captain's not going to hurry, | 0:45:25 | 0:45:28 | |
and after washing my smalls, I settle in and surrender to the night. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:32 | |
I must say, there's... | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
something to be said for this way of getting round Europe. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:38 | |
Bobbing along the Adriatic, | 0:45:38 | 0:45:41 | |
along one of the most ancient trade routes of the world, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:44 | |
with this lovely symphony of creaks and groans. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:48 | |
You just don't get hotel rooms like this. | 0:45:48 | 0:45:52 | |
Lovely, really. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:53 | |
And tomorrow, Albania. Ahh. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:00 | |
Albania. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
LOUD SINGING ECHOES | 0:46:05 | 0:46:07 | |
Amazingly enough, we do eventually reach Durres, Albania's main port and second city. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:26 | |
We're now heading into the heart of the Balkans | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
and the first port of call is Albania, surely the most quirkily inscrutable country in Europe. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:37 | |
I know they had a king called Zog and, for 45 years, a hardline communist dictatorship | 0:46:37 | 0:46:43 | |
where even having a map could land you in prison. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:47 | |
But now they are open for business. We can see the reality for ourselves. | 0:46:47 | 0:46:51 | |
With Italy, her main trading partner, only 70 miles away, | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
Albania's isn't exactly cut off, it just feels that way. | 0:46:57 | 0:47:01 | |
On the beach at Durres, there's surreal evidence | 0:47:11 | 0:47:13 | |
of the paranoid rule of Enver Hoxha, the dictator who embraced first Stalin, then Chairman Mao. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:20 | |
One of the first things you notice when you come ashore in Albania are bunkers everywhere. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:28 | |
Apparently, there are about 400,000 of them scattered across the country, | 0:47:28 | 0:47:33 | |
a symbol of the paranoia during the Hoxha years. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:37 | |
But now some of them have been recycled rather nicely | 0:47:37 | 0:47:41 | |
and certainly make British beach huts look rather pathetic! | 0:47:41 | 0:47:45 | |
You could have a nice holiday and repel an invasion from here. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:49 | |
And what can you say about Dunsleepin' and all those little Balmorals? | 0:47:49 | 0:47:54 | |
This is a proper decent beach hut! | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
Right? | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
I take the train from Durres inland to the capital, Tirana. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:14 | |
It's about an hour's ride away. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:17 | |
Under Communism, investment in Albania stagnated | 0:48:20 | 0:48:24 | |
and afterwards things got even worse when a huge pyramid selling scheme collapsed taking savings with it. | 0:48:24 | 0:48:30 | |
The villages we passed through show a bruised economy making a fragile recovery. | 0:48:30 | 0:48:36 | |
In the capital, evidence of hardship is less immediately apparent. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:43 | |
The Albanian's car of choice appears to be a Mercedes. | 0:48:43 | 0:48:46 | |
Almost everybody has one, though no-one seems quite sure where they've all come from. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:51 | |
I get a part-time job with some young Albanian couriers. | 0:48:57 | 0:49:01 | |
They've been given the task of delivering some of the city's bills and business letters | 0:49:01 | 0:49:07 | |
as the postal service and the traffic is so bad. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
My fellow worker, Ilya, seems to know just what to do, | 0:49:18 | 0:49:22 | |
including wearing a helmet and getting a proper bike. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
The natives are not friendly. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:32 | |
CAR HORN BLARES | 0:49:32 | 0:49:34 | |
-Ilya, do you want some water? -Thank you. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:40 | |
-You'll need it after that. -I'm tired. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:43 | |
It's dangerous sometimes, isn't it, out there? | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
Yeah. With a bike it is. | 0:49:46 | 0:49:50 | |
Were you born here? | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
-Yeah, I was born in Tirana. -Was it a good place to grow up? | 0:49:52 | 0:49:57 | |
It was before a good place. | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
-It was before? -Before it was a good place. -When? | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
-Before 15 years. -Really? -Yeah. | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
Do you prefer it when the communist...? | 0:50:05 | 0:50:09 | |
Yeah. It was better. No cars, nothing, no troubles. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:14 | |
No troubles! A bit of nostalgia for the old days. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
Albania's national hero, Skanderbeg, fought the Turks. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:22 | |
But today's hero is fighting for his city. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:25 | |
Hello, Mayor. It's nice of you to meet me, Michael Palin. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:31 | |
And what a fantastic office. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:36 | |
I've just noticed! It's not really an office, it's an art gallery! | 0:50:36 | 0:50:41 | |
Have a seat. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:43 | |
Edi Rama is an artist who became mayor of Tirana. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:46 | |
His notebooks, doodled on during council meetings, give him inspiration for improving the city. | 0:50:46 | 0:50:54 | |
All these colours you have here, | 0:50:56 | 0:50:59 | |
were they part of how you approached changing the city? The look of the city, by painting buildings? | 0:50:59 | 0:51:05 | |
Colours are a part of our life. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
It's really a pity that cities are not really reflecting this. | 0:51:09 | 0:51:16 | |
And I think Tirana has a big potential to develop on colours. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:21 | |
I would like the city to become | 0:51:21 | 0:51:25 | |
like an open-air contemporary art living space. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:30 | |
It's like people living in an art space. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:33 | |
So if every building would be painted, every corner would be painted, it would be amazing. | 0:51:33 | 0:51:39 | |
It could be a really extremely attractive city. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:43 | |
So the idea for the painted buildings comes really from you? | 0:51:43 | 0:51:47 | |
No, the idea of painting buildings came in the beginning. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:52 | |
When I came in, and we had no money, and people had big expectations | 0:51:52 | 0:51:57 | |
after ten years of greyness and lack of hope. | 0:51:57 | 0:52:01 | |
Tirana was like a transit station where everybody wanted to leave for somewhere. | 0:52:01 | 0:52:07 | |
Dirty, and no communication. | 0:52:07 | 0:52:10 | |
So we had to give a sign, and how? | 0:52:10 | 0:52:12 | |
We thought, colours are the best way. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:16 | |
You grew up here presumably during the Hoxha years and all that. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
It must have been depressing for someone with an artistic colour sense. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:26 | |
A little bit depressed, yes. It was like a concentration camp. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:30 | |
Private life was totally controlled. | 0:52:30 | 0:52:33 | |
Cafes didn't exist. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:35 | |
We didn't have cafes. | 0:52:35 | 0:52:37 | |
What sort of education were you getting? | 0:52:37 | 0:52:39 | |
It was a Stalinist country. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:44 | |
We were isolated from both West and East. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:47 | |
So it really was, there was no other country in the same situation as Albania? | 0:52:49 | 0:52:55 | |
-Kind of unusual. -No comparison. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:57 | |
When it all finished, | 0:52:57 | 0:52:58 | |
was there a great feeling, did you feel a great spirit of excitement and opportunity and liberation? | 0:52:58 | 0:53:05 | |
Sure. It was... like the end of a nightmare. | 0:53:05 | 0:53:12 | |
To escape Tirana's turbulent traffic, I take a taxi out of town to see what life's like beyond the city limits. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:33 | |
This involves negotiating the infamous Blackbird roundabout, | 0:53:33 | 0:53:37 | |
named after a brothel that used to stand on the site. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
Maybe still does for all I know! | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
The mayor is doing his best to beautify Tirana but there are times | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
when a city needs something more than art, like roads that work. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:51 | |
Until you get the infrastructure right, I think Tirana is never going to thrive. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:56 | |
As a friend of mine once said about a British city which tried | 0:53:56 | 0:53:59 | |
to paint its way out of trouble, you can't polish a turd! | 0:53:59 | 0:54:03 | |
Albania, like most of the Balkan peninsula, is mountainous. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:14 | |
And here in the town of Kruja, the 15th century hero Skanderbeg | 0:54:14 | 0:54:19 | |
used natural defences to fight off three Turkish sieges. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:24 | |
In a country without a lot to celebrate, | 0:54:24 | 0:54:26 | |
this has made Kruja a national shrine and leading tourist attraction. | 0:54:26 | 0:54:31 | |
But Illir Mati, my guide, has something rather different to show me. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:37 | |
He invites me to accompany a young man who is taking a sheep to be sacrificed at the local monastery | 0:54:37 | 0:54:43 | |
in the hope that it will make a dream come true. | 0:54:43 | 0:54:46 | |
Tell me about this dream. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:51 | |
Yeah. In the basis of this procession... | 0:54:51 | 0:54:55 | |
This pilgrimage. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
Yes, pilgrimage, the basis is the dream. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:02 | |
The dream? | 0:55:02 | 0:55:04 | |
People have dreams | 0:55:04 | 0:55:07 | |
about the person who are working in Europe. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:12 | |
Oh, I see. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:14 | |
So their family who are working in Europe, they pray for them. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:17 | |
They pray for them in this mountain. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
-What do they pray? -They pray have documents, and work. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:25 | |
Documents and work. That's a simple goal for your prayer. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
There don't seem to be too many people on this particular pilgrim trail this afternoon. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:37 | |
However, I dare say our reward will be greater... | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
The monastery belongs to the Bektashi religion, one of the offshoots of the mystical Sufi order of Islam. | 0:55:42 | 0:55:49 | |
Its position, on the very top of the mountain, | 0:55:49 | 0:55:53 | |
is good for devotional contemplation but hell on the thigh muscles. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
Hello. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:00 | |
Very pleased to meet you. | 0:56:04 | 0:56:05 | |
It's difficult to get here. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:07 | |
-Michael there. -Yes. Where do we go? | 0:56:07 | 0:56:09 | |
-Here. -I'm here? | 0:56:09 | 0:56:11 | |
-Important guest. -Ah. Right. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:14 | |
I am honoured. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
Ooh, it's so nice to sit down. | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
'The holy man, known as the Baba, doesn't initially look thrilled to see us. | 0:56:19 | 0:56:24 | |
'But after a tumblerful of the local raki, he seems to perk up a bit.' | 0:56:24 | 0:56:29 | |
Baba, very good to meet you. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
In the mountain, the villagers like to have raki. | 0:56:32 | 0:56:38 | |
Gezuar. Gezuar. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:41 | |
'Regrettably, the main business of our visit cannot be put off any longer | 0:56:52 | 0:56:57 | |
'and the pilgrim hands his sheep over for the sacrifice.' | 0:56:57 | 0:57:02 | |
News of the successful sacrifice has cheered up the family no end | 0:57:05 | 0:57:09 | |
and I'm invited back for a party | 0:57:09 | 0:57:13 | |
at which my pilgrim friend plays celebratory music with his father and brothers. | 0:57:13 | 0:57:19 | |
Albania does seem different from the other countries of the Balkans. | 0:57:40 | 0:57:44 | |
It may be looking increasingly to the West, but at heart it feels Oriental. | 0:57:44 | 0:57:50 | |
And I have to remind myself that not only am I still in Europe, but I've a lot further east to go yet. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:56 |