Baltic Summer Michael Palin's New Europe


Baltic Summer

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For 50 years after the Second World War Soviet muscle - both

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military and political - dominated the Baltic States.

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But in 1991 they gained their independence.

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Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were now free to live their lives, revive their culture and clear up the mess.

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This is Tallinn, capital of Estonia.

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From here I'll be travelling through the Baltics south to Kaliningrad.

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When I was last here,

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16 years ago, it was an unwelcoming Soviet republic.

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Left to its own devices Tallinn has boomed.

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Estonia has a population not much more than Birmingham,

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and everyone is doing rather nicely.

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I'm driving along the coast to meet some of these newly-affluent

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Estonians who are trying to come to terms with it all.

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The days of Communist conformity are long gone.

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Our hosts, Margus and Evelin and their family, live in a pyramid.

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What's it like,

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living inside a pyramid?

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It helps to find

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the way to do things and the way you find and feel the power inside you that, er, that's

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like the...like God.

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It helps to find God in you.

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-God or good?

-God.

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God in you. God is everything.

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God is like the basic energy and if you find this God you can, er,

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you can create whatever.

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Are Estonians particularly interested in spiritual things?

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Many people are searching for spiritual enlightenment and

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looking for different practices, how

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to get their life

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getting...er,

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flowing easier, and to be happier.

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Living in a pyramid is clearly not the only way to make your life happier,

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and tonight friends and neighbours are here to try another approach.

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At the moment it mainly involves staring.

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The sun is at last beginning to set,

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and Margus, our host, is making final preparations.

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It looks like any summer barbeque but the only difference is that

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what's going on this barbeque, are the guests.

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DRUMMING

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Margus leads off.

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Intrepid ladies follow him.

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Some of the men are not so sure.

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Why do you think people do this, Margus?

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I think they do it because the same reason why I do that.

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It gives me good feeling

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and, um...

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..my heart will be open.

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I know who I am better.

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Is it about conquering fear?

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Yes, yes.

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To understand that fear, how it can

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be without fear, we have to bring fear so close, if we can to look, what is fear?

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-I feel, I scared at the moment more than...

-Really?

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Really. Really!

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It's so funny. Really.

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I feel pfff - "What I need to say, how can I say?"

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You did very well. Very well. Very good.

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It's a curiously emotional evening.

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But I'm afraid the only things I'll be putting on fires are chestnuts.

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Further up the coast are 100 concrete suitcases.

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They symbolise the plight of all those Estonians

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who fled abroad when the Red Army marched into their country in 1944.

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They're part of an art collection assembled by Jaan Manitski who,

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as a babe in arms, was caught up in it all.

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Just from this coastline here many small fishing boats

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left over the Finnish Gulf to Finland or the Baltics to Sweden.

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And most people could only bring with them

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a suitcase. And many times when the small boats were crowded they even had to leave them on the shore here.

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So this is some kind of...

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..a reminder of what has happened on these shores.

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Having made his money as business manger of the pop group Abba, Manitski came back home

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and offered his expertise to Estonia's new free-market economy.

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Now all his energies are going into this arts centre.

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'His paintings by Estonian artists are a bit of everything.

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'The good, the bad and the ugly.'

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As my mother would say, I don't think I could live with that!

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-I would neither put it in my living room.

-Exactly.

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Perhaps in the bathroom.

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'Jaan shows me his latest acquisition, and very topical it is.'

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This is the painter's view of the organised -

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by individuals - demolishing of the monster.

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The monster being...?

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The monster - this is the Soviet system.

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We started up in a very difficult situation.

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The Estonian economy and the whole society was so integrated in the Soviet system.

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For example, to illustrate it, a big shoe-making factory in Tallinn

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-produced...

-Yeah.

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..Left foot shoes number 44.

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The right foot shoes were made in Irkutzk, or Murmansk, or somewhere.

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Back in Tallinn the incoming ferries are

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full as yet more people discover the unhurried appeal of the old town.

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BELL TOLLS

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Across the Gothic roof-tops rises the new Estonia,

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a mini Manhattan, with a state-of-the-art electronic economy.

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But in Old Town Square

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I discover there are limits to the Estonian dream.

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Businessman Peter Knoll tells me that for the Russians

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who stayed on here, the government has devised an exquisite torture.

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Russians are obliged to learn Estonian, aren't they?

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That's correct. In order to become an Estonian citizen,

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you must pass a test in Estonian, which comprises about 3,000 characters.

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That's why we have still, I think it's around 10,000 or just slightly below,

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of residents in Estonia without nationality.

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So they're not citizens of Estonia but they're not Russians anymore

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because they've given up their Russian citizenship.

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So what rights do they have?

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They have the right to live here.

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They're mainly elderly people that are not learning the language

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any more, but the family are taking care of them.

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However this has been discussed by the European Union as well because you cannot have it that somebody

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is a resident in your country, who has been living all his life, and cannot have citizenship.

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So it's an issue on the European Union agenda.

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In Soviet times the Baltic States were seen as something of a bracing seaside sanatorium.

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I've been recommended a clinic outside Tallinn where all sorts

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of traditional treatments await the tired traveller.

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The lady I've come to see is one of those Russians who stayed on.

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Her name is Lyudmilla Agajeva and she's an hirudotherapist.

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-Next.

-Hello.

-Ooh! Hello, how are you?

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Very bad.

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Oh, I'll help you. Let's go with me.

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I'm very bad because I've come here!

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What do you want me to take off? Shirt?

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-Everything.

-Small striptease.

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-Small striptease?

-Yes.

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OK.

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Right. There we go.

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It's here.

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What? And go behind the screens?

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There we go.

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Small, not very good striptease, is that OK? Enough?

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Is that OK? Enough?

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Very nice, very nice.

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-Please?

-On back or front?

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-No...

-Back. OK.

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You see, I've never done this before.

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This is the first time so I don't know what happens.

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-Comfort? Do you have comfort?

-Yes, I'm comfortable, very comfortable.

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-Yes, yes.

-My heart's beating rather fast.

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Isn't it?

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-Quickly, quickly!

-Yes, I'm nervous. I've never had small creatures...

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-You can see....

-Yeah.

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Oh, right!

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Ooh, yes, that doesn't make me feel any better.

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-Better, very better.

-But they work?

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They do work, to make me feel stronger?

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Yes. Translator?

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I've been doing so much travelling.

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It's just, is that on my body now?

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So it is. Ooh.

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I experienced a slight sting, nothing more than...

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..having an injection.

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So it's, it's sucking out bad blood? Or...? How...?

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Yes, yes.

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-Bad blood.

-It's stuck to you now, isn't it?

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Ah! Ooh! Oh! Jesus!

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-Definitely like a little electric charge.

-Mm-hm.

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These special leeches? Leeches that...

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-Yes, yes, special.

-It's not so bad.

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It's just...

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You start thinking about what is going on.

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Little black things with their heads into your body.

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It's like a series of quite sharp electric shocks. Oof!

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It's quite, um...

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It's quite a...

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strong stinging sensation.

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Put it this way, I won't be doing it again for a bit!

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Ah, I feel better.

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How much blood do they take?

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One glass vodka.

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One glass of vodka?

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Yes please!

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200, maybe 300 millilitres.

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Are you enjoying it? Look, they're getting quite engorged.

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Is that growing? Full of blood?

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I stimulation.

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-You're stimulating the leech?

-Yes.

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Oh Gosh. That's something I thought

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I'd never see in my lifetime, someone stimulating a leech.

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There's a first time for everything.

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Do they have teeth?

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Yes, teeth. I understand.

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-Ah, 300 teeth.

-300 teeth?

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Each of these little fellows?

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Yes, and three jaws.

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Three j...?

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-Jaws.

-Jaws, oh jaws! Yes.

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Three jaws.

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That must give them some power.

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Three jaws?

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I mean, that's great!

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Breakfast, lunch and dinner!

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At the same time!

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After they finish taking the blood, then what? What happens then?

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Do you kill them?

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I kill they.

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-I kill.

-Yes, why?

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-Because...

-I'm very fond of them.

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-They're my friends!

-Yes, yes.

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Well, I don't want you to kill them.

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-No...

-Can they go somewhere to retire?

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Sit quietly in an armchair?

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It's surprise for you? Yes, yes.

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You're a hard woman.

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-When they are hungry...

-Yes.

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..You apart second.

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OK.

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Ah! They're still sucking away, those, aren't they?

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Imagine that - halfway through a nice little steak,

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and someone comes and pulls your chair away.

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-Don't want!

-OK.

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-Is that blood in them?

-Yes.

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Can I just touch them?

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-Very nice blood!

-Yes, there you are, thank you very much.

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Thank you, Frank, thank you, Arthur.

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They're hermaphrodites?

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Thank you, Frank and Diana.

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Thank you Arthur and Elizabeth.

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Done a good job.

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There they go.

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Yes. They no alcoholics.

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Aw! Now that hurt!

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I don't want to watch them...

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Vodka, very strong vodka.

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That's what it is.

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You're right.

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-Can I have some of that vodka?

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Do you want vodka? Now?

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-Yeah, lovely.

-No. Don't want.

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They've had the vodka.

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I have vodka.

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Ooh. Ow! Ooh! Ow!

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SHE LAUGHS

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Now that is something - that is something else. Ooh!

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Ooh! Four breasts!

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See?

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-Your friends.

-Gonna kill them? I don't want to watch that.

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All finish!

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Thank you. Thank you.

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-They die like that.

-Yes.

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No long, drawn out suffering?

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-No, I was mafioso.

-You were? You're a caring person.

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But when the moment comes you can...

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..turn into a killer.

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Natasha!

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This is Ape. My idea of the perfect border post.

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-First time?

-First time, yes.

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'No queues, no metal detectors, just a man in a hut.'

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Thank you. Thank you very much.

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Pausing only to correct my pronunciation to Ar-pay, not Ape,

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my courteous guard shows me into Latvia.

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Half as big again as Estonia,

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its population is little more than two million.

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Is this why their trains are so short?

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Something's missing.

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This is supposed to be the 7:50.

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Maybe it's a national holiday.

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Maybe they've heard about the leeches.

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Eventually an engine

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arrives and we become, officially, the 7.50 from Aluksne to Gulbene.

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INDISTINCT

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Our progress through this sylvan countryside seems unreal.

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Almost dreamlike. Which seems entirely suitable.

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For this is Midsummer's Eve and a big night for Latvians, as people

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up and down the country gather for the pagan festival of Jani.

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The Latvians converted to Christianity much later than most of Europe.

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So resolutely pagan were the local tribes

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that in 1198 the Pope launched a crusade against them.

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Here in the heart of the countryside, the pre-Christian

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traditions of Jani are being painstakingly revived.

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The women wear Garlands, which must contain at least 27 different flowers.

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THEY SING IN LATVIAN

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New arrivals at the celebration are ritually insulted, and then expected to reply.

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THEY SING IN LATVIAN

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Once you've shown you can hold your own, you're allowed to hug the host.

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HE SPEAKS LATVIAN

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Jani is a celebration of birth, growth and fecundity.

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And they do it in style.

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The Latvians have preserved

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1,200 - 1,200 melodies for this one night.

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To sing on this one night.

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< SHE SPEAKS LATVIAN

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And 28,000, um, texts - little song lyrics.

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Are these written down? Or just handed down.

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-Ja. Written down.

-Yeah, they're written down. There's a book.

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SHE SPEAKS LATVIAN

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Yeah. At the moment the sad thing is that people just get drunk.

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And they think that tradition's not necessary,

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and they don't know what to do on Jani, so that's all they do.

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WOMAN SPEAKS LATVIAN

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In the evening we say goodbye to the sun, in the morning we welcome the sun again.

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And you can't sleep tonight.

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-I don't think we're going to.

-No! Are you staying here?

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Dancers circle the oak tree, symbol of strength and virility.

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Single women are entreated to find partners.

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The food consists of cheese and bread.

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A little severe, but bread and cheese were all that was left to eat before the new harvest.

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Mind you, there's plenty of home-brew to wash it down.

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I hear my name called out, and fear the worst.

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WOMAN SINGS, ALL JOIN IN.

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Thank you.

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What were they saying?

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They were saying to you that you are now Michelis, not Michael,

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which is the Latvian version and the oak

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is always the symbol of strength and virility

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and on Midsummer Night, in the circle,

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it's concentrated on your head.

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So, you are crowned with strength, virility,

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and their singing, and wishing that you will see everything well.

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You will hear everything well,

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and you will film everything well.

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And the filming part is part of the tradition.

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Do I have to wear this throughout the rest of the filming?

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Of course!

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-And the rest of the night.

-The rest of the night.

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SINGING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE

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Believe me, it's not easy to dance with half a national park on your head.

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The setting of the Midsummer Night's sun is the most important moment of the evening.

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Just before 11 o'clock we process up the nearest hill to watch and to celebrate.

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BAGPIPES PLAY

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This is developing into quite a test of stamina.

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And I've lost my National Park.

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As darkness falls, last years' Jani wreath is ceremonially burnt.

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And a symbolic new fire is lit.

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A blazing wheel of hopes and fears and thanks bowls down the hill.

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And we all cheer.

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Riga, the Latvian capital, rich in buildings from Stalinist grandeur to Medieval Gothic,

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has recently acquired a reputation as a safe place for summit meetings.

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To find out more about Riga's status as a world host,

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I'm on my way to meet one of the Baltic's top chefs, Martin Ritins.

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A Latvian who learnt his trade in Canada and Corby, Northants, he now cooks for the world's most powerful.

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This is a starter that we did for George Bush when he was here.

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Crayfish.

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It is very traditional.

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-Did he ask for this?

-No, he didn't.

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But we talked to his, to his...

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Look - I mustn't get too fond of it.

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-You can take this home with you.

-Lovely.

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So, Baltic crayfish?

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It's a freshwater.

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It's a team work. And Bush has a team, so do we here.

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So, the sauce...

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it's onions... With Latvian produce.

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..carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic and Cognac.

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-Cognac?

-Cognac.

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Now, I want to see how can you...

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Oh, right!

0:27:580:28:00

Up, up, up, up, higher!

0:28:000:28:03

-When George came he only had an hour and a half.

-Well...

0:28:100:28:13

Now, can I show you the trick?

0:28:140:28:17

Like tennis.

0:28:170:28:20

You don't shake the pan, you shake the wrist.

0:28:200:28:23

It's so heavy, oops...

0:28:230:28:25

It's incredibly heavy.

0:28:270:28:28

-Now, how do you think...

-Wow, that is heavy.

0:28:320:28:35

Respect to you guys who do that.

0:28:350:28:37

How do you think Fanny Cradock did this?

0:28:370:28:39

I think she must've had a few pints beforehand or something stronger.

0:28:410:28:44

And a bit of colour.

0:28:440:28:46

When you have someone like the President of the United States,

0:28:460:28:49

or whatever, well, not whatever, but your friend George and Laura to cook for, is it a big palaver?

0:28:490:28:57

Have you got security people coming around?

0:28:570:29:01

It's very much so.

0:29:010:29:04

We do all the state dinners but never anything has been like this.

0:29:040:29:10

We had three days with their security people, their chefs.

0:29:110:29:16

-Three days for one meal?

-For one meal.

0:29:160:29:18

Yes, I was with their chefs for three days.

0:29:180:29:20

We discussed the menu, we went through it in very much detail and

0:29:200:29:25

I had to show them where everything came from.

0:29:250:29:29

-Have you any juicy details?

-Absolutely no, no.

0:29:290:29:32

Personal habits? Don't give him apricot jam cos his leg starts to wobble...

0:29:320:29:36

Now, here we'll try again. Your tennis.

0:29:420:29:46

No, it's in the wrist.

0:29:510:29:53

It's not shaking...

0:29:590:30:01

That's embarrassing.

0:30:050:30:07

Let me see your wrists.

0:30:070:30:09

Look at that - that is a wrist!

0:30:090:30:12

It's the tennis, it's the tennis.

0:30:120:30:14

I'll work on it, I'll work on it.

0:30:140:30:16

The whole lot?

0:30:200:30:22

Not the whole lot. As you...

0:30:220:30:25

We nearly had a Molotov cocktail.

0:30:330:30:36

You were telling me in the kitchen that the process is, he vets, his chefs are with you for three days.

0:30:400:30:48

Three days. We cook for 22.

0:30:480:30:51

And I couldn't say this, I usually say the nicest one,

0:30:510:30:55

that's for our President, or that's for that Prime Minister.

0:30:550:31:00

But we weren't allowed this time.

0:31:000:31:02

I had to keep my mouth shut,

0:31:020:31:03

which is difficult for me!

0:31:030:31:08

And they said, that's the one,

0:31:080:31:10

even if it's the most horrible one.

0:31:100:31:12

Because this is, we're under stress,

0:31:120:31:15

very quick, it was all cooked in the last minute.

0:31:150:31:19

It wasn't pre-cooked.

0:31:190:31:21

And that was the one that he had.

0:31:210:31:24

Another one I had to taste,

0:31:240:31:27

and another one, one of his security people tasted.

0:31:270:31:31

-Really?

-Yes.

0:31:310:31:32

So it was very exciting.

0:31:320:31:35

It was like a movie.

0:31:350:31:36

-And that's the way they do it.

-That's it.

0:31:390:31:41

On Latvia's Baltic coast stands an abandoned cluster of concrete housing blocks,

0:31:500:31:55

the remains of a once substantial Soviet presence.

0:31:550:31:59

Once they spoke of pride, achievement and a better future.

0:32:120:32:16

Now they're turning to dust.

0:32:170:32:19

And this is the reason why they were here.

0:32:300:32:32

This was one of the Soviet Union's most important ears on the outside world.

0:32:320:32:37

So here we are.

0:32:390:32:40

In the belly of the beast.

0:32:420:32:44

It was so important that, when the Cold War ended, the people who built it tried to destroy it.

0:32:440:32:50

But they reckoned without world opinion.

0:32:500:32:52

In the old control room Yuris Zagars, a Latvian astronomer,

0:32:520:32:56

explains how they saved the Ventspils Radio Telescope in the nick of time.

0:32:560:33:02

It was like in a fairytale,

0:33:020:33:05

some 15 minutes before execution,

0:33:050:33:09

the order of destroying was changed, for some kind of

0:33:090:33:14

electrical immolation but not touching the important parts of it.

0:33:140:33:19

It was because the world's radio astronomical societies was making

0:33:190:33:25

some protestations, as well as Russian Academy of Science.

0:33:250:33:30

That to destroy the best radio telescope in Northern Europe,

0:33:300:33:33

only on political reasons, it's some kind of vandalism.

0:33:330:33:37

Instead they sent in a wrecking team to make it impossible to use.

0:33:370:33:41

This is one of the examples of electric sabotage,

0:33:410:33:46

because all these connections has been dismounted and disconnected.

0:33:460:33:51

And no paper, no diagram, how to connect them.

0:33:510:33:56

So, it was some scientific puzzle for our engineers, some challenge to put them to,

0:33:560:34:03

and this is not the only box.

0:34:030:34:05

We have at least four such boxes, eight panels, but how to connect it was a hard job.

0:34:050:34:11

And this demolition work was performed during one week.

0:34:110:34:17

We worked four years to put them back.

0:34:170:34:20

How does this compare in size and scale to other radio telescopes?

0:34:220:34:28

From the point of the scale, it's not the biggest one in Europe.

0:34:280:34:32

Three to five is bigger, radio telescopes of the scale of 70 metres.

0:34:320:34:38

As in Jodrell Bank, and in Spain, and in Effelsberg in Germany

0:34:380:34:43

but the value of the telescope is not only the size but

0:34:430:34:46

also the accuracy of the surface, and the accuracy of the surface is very high for this telescope.

0:34:460:34:52

It's the best radio telescope of Northern Europe.

0:34:520:34:55

-Let's come.

-OK.

0:35:030:35:07

It's like a submarine in the sky.

0:35:070:35:12

And now the next level.

0:35:120:35:15

And here's our submarine.

0:35:280:35:30

Looks like a submarine and it's tilting when we are working.

0:35:300:35:35

This chamber tilts, does it?

0:35:350:35:38

Yes. You can walk on the left hand as well, so it is...

0:35:380:35:41

How far does it tilt? How many degrees?

0:35:410:35:45

About 100. More than 90 degrees.

0:35:450:35:48

Must be a weird sensation.

0:35:480:35:50

-Be careful.

-You could have got a lift!

0:36:160:36:19

Wow!

0:36:190:36:21

Fantastic!

0:36:210:36:24

Pointing at the heavens.

0:36:240:36:25

I really feel,

0:36:280:36:30

well done to you and your team, you have saved this thing.

0:36:300:36:34

Yes, we have saved the thing, saved it for, there is not so many beautiful radio telescopes

0:36:340:36:40

in the world, and this is one of the top instruments.

0:36:400:36:43

So it's to be used for extra-galactic radio astronomy.

0:36:430:36:50

It's the best application we can hope.

0:36:500:36:54

And it's a wonderful sun trap.

0:36:540:36:57

Yes, as well as for...

0:36:570:37:00

You could have a few loungers round here,

0:37:000:37:03

you could make all the money you need.

0:37:030:37:05

But this surface is the most valuable part of the telescope.

0:37:050:37:10

Its accuracy is better than one millimetre.

0:37:100:37:13

Saving the telescope was a rare victory for common sense.

0:37:130:37:16

Across the border is the largest of the Baltic Republics - Lithuania.

0:37:200:37:25

Influenced more by Poland than Sweden, it's staunchly Catholic,

0:37:250:37:29

and in the middle of its green and pleasant countryside is a remarkable religious site.

0:37:290:37:34

This is the Hill Of Crosses - a symbol of Lithuanian defiance for over 150 years.

0:37:410:37:48

The Communists bulldozed it three times and once even flooded the area with sewage before a Papal visit.

0:37:480:37:55

Which only served to make it even more popular.

0:37:550:37:58

The skyline of the capital, Vilnius, shows Lithuania's mixed fortunes.

0:38:270:38:31

One of the most enlightened empires of medieval Europe, it's since

0:38:310:38:34

fallen under the sway of Poland, Sweden, Germany and Tsarist Russia.

0:38:340:38:40

In the Second World War alone it was occupied three times,

0:38:440:38:48

by the Soviet Union,

0:38:480:38:49

then by the Germans, then again by Soviet troops.

0:38:490:38:53

These are the names of Lithuanians who tried to resist.

0:38:530:38:56

In this building in the heart of Vilnius, once a courthouse,

0:38:580:39:01

once even a boys' school, the occupiers dealt, brutally, with that resistance.

0:39:010:39:06

The basement where prisoners were kept and often tortured is now open to the public.

0:39:180:39:23

I put on a headset to let me know what I am about to see.

0:39:230:39:26

VOICEOVER: Welcome to the Genocide Victims Museum.

0:39:260:39:31

Housed in the former KGB headquarters,

0:39:310:39:34

the museum is the only one of its kind in the Baltic States.

0:39:340:39:40

Object number one,

0:39:400:39:43

the padded cell.

0:39:430:39:45

This is one of the grimmest places in the prison.

0:39:450:39:49

The walls are padded and soundproofed,

0:39:500:39:54

with a straitjacket on the wall used for those who resisted or who were deranged with torture.

0:39:540:40:02

The walls absorbed their cries and shouts for help.

0:40:030:40:08

This cell was fitted out in 1973, though there were similar cells before that.

0:40:080:40:15

Object number two.

0:40:280:40:30

This is a guard post.

0:40:300:40:33

From the far end of this room, the guards watched the outside window of the cells round the clock.

0:40:330:40:42

In 1964 when the prison premises were reduced,

0:40:420:40:46

four guard booths remained, three inside and one in the courtyard.

0:40:460:40:53

There were telephones and alarm systems in the booths for armed guards.

0:40:530:40:57

It was a high security prison.

0:40:570:41:00

Only one escape is known.

0:41:000:41:03

Object number three.

0:41:070:41:09

The next room contains two cells with concrete pools in the floors, fitted out in about 1945.

0:41:090:41:18

Witnesses say that they had to either stand in ice cold water and

0:41:180:41:24

ice in winter, or on a small stand.

0:41:240:41:28

When they dosed off they fell into the water.

0:41:280:41:32

A political prisoner recalled,

0:41:320:41:35

"I did everything not to freeze to death.

0:41:350:41:38

"Though I was weak with illness, I would walk, run or try to stand.

0:41:380:41:44

"But I kept slipping off onto the ice.

0:41:440:41:47

"Eventually I curled up, exhausted, on the bloodstained ice floor."

0:41:470:41:54

Some prisoners were kept there for five days and nights.

0:41:540:41:57

The television tower above Vilnius has become a shrine to Baltic liberation.

0:42:000:42:05

In 1991, 13 unarmed Lithuanians were killed by by the Red Army

0:42:110:42:16

as they tried to protect the freedom to broadcast Lithuania's independence vote.

0:42:160:42:21

It was the climax of three years of protest.

0:42:210:42:24

Two years earlier an estimated two million men, women and children

0:42:280:42:32

from all the Baltic Republics joined hands in a human chain

0:42:320:42:36

which stretched over 300 miles from Tallinn to Vilnius.

0:42:360:42:39

The chain marked 50 years of smouldering resentment.

0:42:450:42:48

ONE SINGER BEGINS, CROWD JOINS IN

0:43:000:43:04

Song Festivals, which were permitted, provided an outlet

0:43:040:43:08

for anti-Russian feeling.

0:43:080:43:10

The protest, which became known as the Singing Revolution,

0:43:140:43:19

was something quite unique in politics, and it led to the freedom of the Baltic States.

0:43:190:43:24

-We are a singing nation.

-I've heard a lot about this...

0:43:240:43:28

'Algis Greitai is a Lithuanian TV star.'

0:43:280:43:32

I want to see how it works.

0:43:320:43:35

Can you just get people to sing?

0:43:350:43:36

Well, it's very easy.

0:43:360:43:38

HE SPEAKS LITHUANIAN

0:43:380:43:40

-Convincing?

-Very good.

0:44:160:44:18

Beautiful, I'm convinced, yes.

0:44:260:44:28

Maybe they could stay and we could get some other people.

0:44:280:44:31

Have a sit down and we'll find...

0:44:360:44:38

That's very good. If you get a little choir to do that I'd be very impressed.

0:44:380:44:42

-Not that one.

-No?

0:44:470:44:49

Do you know this man?

0:45:050:45:06

Do you know him?

0:45:060:45:07

-Yes.

-Yes. Wasn't very enthused - "ye-es."

0:45:070:45:10

They will sing together the same song?

0:45:270:45:30

HE SPEAKS LITHUANIAN

0:45:300:45:32

-Enough? Maybe another song?

-We don't know the words. Very good. You've made the point.

0:46:020:46:06

-I think that's excellent.

-Charge 50!

-Very good.

0:46:060:46:09

Eurovision Song contest next year!

0:46:090:46:11

This is Nida in southern Lithuania.

0:46:110:46:15

The chunky boat taking me out of the harbour

0:46:200:46:23

is an old Baltic fishing barque.

0:46:230:46:25

We're heading towards one of Europe's most intriguing landscapes,

0:46:390:46:43

a 60-mile long, two-mile wide sandbank they call the Curonian Spit.

0:46:430:46:48

This formidable wall of sand is one of the most extraordinary

0:46:540:46:57

and fragile environments on the continent.

0:46:570:47:00

Now protected as a National Park,

0:47:010:47:04

these still-shifting sands curve away to the south and west

0:47:040:47:08

with the Baltic waves on one side and lazy lagoons on the other.

0:47:080:47:12

Forests have been planted to help hold this young and delicate strip of land together.

0:47:360:47:42

As I follow the paths and roads that lead through them,

0:47:420:47:46

I find that the curiosities of nature

0:47:460:47:48

are matched by a few political surprises.

0:47:480:47:51

In one of the odder twists of post-War politics,

0:48:000:48:03

this part of East Prussia was ceded to the victorious Russians.

0:48:030:48:07

They kicked out the Germans and re-named the ancient city of Konigsberg, Kaliningrad.

0:48:070:48:12

But now their neighbours have won independence,

0:48:120:48:15

Kaliningrad is marooned.

0:48:150:48:17

A Russian island in a European sea.

0:48:170:48:21

But today the mood in Kaliningrad is resolutely optimistic.

0:48:260:48:31

It's exactly 60 years ago today that the old Prussian city of Konigsberg

0:48:310:48:35

was consigned to history and Kaliningrad,

0:48:350:48:38

named after a Stalinist president of the USSR, took its place.

0:48:380:48:42

Today it's the red, white and blues of the Russian Federation that are the colours of celebration.

0:48:450:48:51

As a result of the ethnic cleansing of the Germans,

0:48:540:48:58

everyone gathered here can trace themselves back to Mother Russia.

0:48:580:49:01

The opening ceremony in front of the new Victory monument

0:49:050:49:09

owes more to Eurovision than any memories of Red Square.

0:49:090:49:11

Note the brand new Orthodox cathedral in the background,

0:49:160:49:20

of which the old communist regime would certainly not have approved.

0:49:200:49:23

SINGING

0:49:230:49:27

SINGING CONTINUES

0:49:390:49:40

Now it's the turn of the suits,

0:49:550:49:57

followed by a press circus hanging on every word.

0:49:570:50:00

The Mayor of Kaliningrad welcomes, amongst others,

0:50:030:50:06

President Putin's man from Moscow. Putin's wife, by the way, is a Kaliningrad girl.

0:50:060:50:11

Also on parade is a Russian Orthodox priest,

0:50:110:50:15

and a much be-medalled veteran of the great patriotic war.

0:50:150:50:18

Representing Russian power today is the Admiral of the Baltic Fleet,

0:50:210:50:25

whose nuclear submarines lie just up the coast.

0:50:250:50:28

Then it's time for the Russian national anthem.

0:50:420:50:45

Old tune, new words.

0:50:450:50:47

RUSSIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS

0:50:470:50:50

The rest of the celebrations are delightfully un-solemn.

0:51:230:51:26

A Bride's Bus cruises the streets, disgorging a dozen young girls

0:51:290:51:34

all with one cry "Prazdnikom!" - happy holiday.

0:51:340:51:39

CHEERING AND SHOUTING Prazdnikom!

0:51:390:51:43

What is there not to like about Kaliningrad?

0:51:460:51:49

I ask my guide Olga Danilova whether Kaliningraders feel Russian or European.

0:51:520:51:57

Erm, we feel Russian.

0:51:570:52:00

This goes without saying.

0:52:000:52:04

But maybe special Russian, different from Russians living in the mainland Russia.

0:52:040:52:10

Due to this geographical location we found ourselves in.

0:52:100:52:17

In what way would you say you feel different from the others in what you call "mainland" Russia?

0:52:170:52:23

Because we are so close to Europe. We are a geographical part of Europe and we travel more

0:52:230:52:29

to Poland and to Lithuania, further to Europe than we travel to Russia.

0:52:290:52:33

And some of children living here,

0:52:330:52:36

they have never been to Russia.

0:52:360:52:38

But to go to Poland or Lithuania is quite a common thing.

0:52:380:52:41

-Is there any appetite here for independence from Russia?

-No. No way.

0:52:410:52:46

We don't even have this idea in our minds.

0:52:460:52:50

It's not possible - we are Russians.

0:52:500:52:53

Though we travel to Russia, not very often, most of us, but we are Russians.

0:52:530:52:58

BAND PLAYS MELANCHOLY WALTZ

0:52:580:53:01

So, is this open air singing, dancing, a big thing?

0:53:330:53:37

Yes, yes it is. It is very popular, especially among older generations.

0:53:370:53:43

Or just, enjoying themselves.

0:53:430:53:46

And women, women a lot, see the women.

0:53:460:53:49

Thank you. Is that because of the...

0:53:490:53:53

lack of men?

0:53:530:53:56

Correct, correct.

0:53:560:53:57

-The war - legacy of the war, is it?

-Yes, yes. Well spotted.

0:53:570:54:01

I shall be leaving from this dockside early next morning.

0:54:010:54:05

Very hospitably, the captain of this venerable old banana boat, Vityaz,

0:54:050:54:10

has agreed to let me use his cabin as a temporary base.

0:54:100:54:13

Famous ship?

0:54:150:54:16

-Ah!

-Hello!

-Captain - how are you?

0:54:160:54:21

Thank you very much indeed for letting us come here.

0:54:210:54:24

Very kind of you.

0:54:240:54:26

After its banana boat days the Vityaz evacuated 20,000 Germans from here in 1945.

0:54:260:54:32

It was given to the British who in turn gave her to the Russians,

0:54:320:54:36

for whom she ended up mapping the world's deepest sea-bed, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific.

0:54:360:54:41

This is quite a tour, isn't it, to get to the captain's cabin? The bridge...

0:54:440:54:50

'It's now the centrepiece of Kaliningrad's Museum Of The World Ocean.'

0:54:500:54:54

-Look, it's your room.

-Oh, thank you.

0:54:570:55:00

Where you will be sleeping, it's your bed.

0:55:000:55:02

Fantastic. Captains' cabin, thank you very much.

0:55:020:55:05

'Not wanting my last night to be an anti-climax, Olga's laid on a cultural visit.'

0:55:160:55:22

SWORDS CLANG

0:55:250:55:27

ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

0:55:300:55:32

Part historical re-enactment, part general punch-up,

0:55:410:55:44

this homage to the Teutonic Knights ends in group hugs and a huge bonfire.

0:55:440:55:49

It may be European rather than Russian history they're celebrating,

0:55:550:55:59

but tonight in Kaliningrad nobody really cares.

0:55:590:56:02

It seems strange to be marking in such flamboyant style a city named after Michael Kalinin,

0:56:130:56:20

a Soviet bureaucrat who no-one remembers.

0:56:200:56:24

Hi, hello there. Poland, I gather.

0:56:350:56:38

Let me give you that. That's great, thanks.

0:56:400:56:44

Thank you... OK.

0:56:440:56:45

I'd hoped to sail down the River Pregel

0:56:480:56:50

and across the Bay of Gdansk to my next destination and 17th country, Poland,

0:56:500:56:56

but a sudden maritime tiff between the Russians and the Poles

0:56:560:56:59

has resulted in a resounding "Nyet" to my plan.

0:56:590:57:02

While I think of what else to do,

0:57:090:57:11

I settle for a farewell cruise with Max and Sergei along the Kaliningrad waterfront.

0:57:110:57:16

Past disused wharves and idle cranes,

0:57:180:57:21

past my old friend, Vityaz.

0:57:210:57:26

Remnants of the Baltic Fleet are in for refits

0:57:310:57:35

but on the whole this is a ghost port.

0:57:350:57:37

Kaliningrad, more than anywhere else I've seen,

0:57:430:57:46

is a victim of its history.

0:57:460:57:48

Physically European,

0:57:480:57:50

but emotionally, spiritually and politically clinging to the Kremlin.

0:57:500:57:55

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:100:58:13

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:130:58:16

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