- 4 months ago
see more on :
https://rebrand.ly/myTVC-shows-RealTV
https://rebrand.ly/myTVC-shows-RealTV
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00I've come to the most north-westerly corner of Greece.
00:17The British have been falling under this island's spell for centuries.
00:21This is Corfu.
00:22In this episode, I'm going to be travelling across the northernmost regions of Greece,
00:30an area where, more than anywhere else in the country,
00:33has remained vastly influenced by the world around it.
00:36It sits at a crossroads.
00:39Over there, across the sea, is Western Europe.
00:42Behind me, over here, the mountains of Albania and Eastern Europe rising up out of the ocean.
00:46And over there, right out of sight, far away in the distance, where I'm going,
00:50is Greece's border with the east and the rest of the continent of Asia.
00:55It's a frontier land, where foreign invasion and occupation have left a fascinating legacy.
01:05Greece, a land as diverse and surprising as any I've ever seen.
01:10I've already visited the world of the ancient Greeks, where Western civilisation began,
01:21and places off the tourist trail, where myths and traditions still persist.
01:25Can you imagine that this is the way you get your food, which is just by hunting on these hillsides?
01:33In this series, I hope to understand more of the Greece of today,
01:38by exploring places and meeting people,
01:40influenced by this great nation's rich and turbulent past.
01:45They were finished.
01:47No one was not.
01:47The Ionian island of Corfu,
02:07one of Britain's favourite holiday destinations,
02:10attracting about half a million of us each year.
02:13But I'm here to discover where our love for this island began,
02:26starting my odyssey on Corfu's tranquil north-east coast.
02:31Because of Corfu's strategic position in the Mediterranean,
02:34she's been fought over and occupied by all sorts of people throughout the ages,
02:37by the Romans, by the Russians, by the Turks,
02:40even by the British for a short time.
02:42And she became the most desirable island in the world
02:46to have, to hold, to live in, to own, to run,
02:49because of her position on the trade routes.
02:54Corfu has been occupied more than ten times.
02:58The British were the last of this island's rulers more than a century ago.
03:02But the more I explore this coast,
03:04the more it feels like they never left.
03:06The Brits fell in love with this.
03:10This part of Corfu is actually called Kensington-on-Sea
03:14because so many great and grand and fabulous people have made their homes here.
03:21This little house on the waterfront is where the Durrell family lived.
03:25They came to Corfu and it's where Gerald Durrell fell in love
03:29with the creepy crawlies, the insects, the birds, the lizards, the mice, the snakes.
03:35Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and David Cameron
03:38have all holidayed in these mansions
03:40and as many as one in ten residents are British.
03:46The houses here are terribly expensive.
03:48One went only two days ago
03:50for 15 million euros.
03:56I have a special invitation
03:58to visit one of Corfu's most distinguished residents.
04:05How lovely.
04:06That's the Count and Countess Flamboriani,
04:08the little private beach.
04:10Count Flamboriani can trace his lineage
04:14back to the start of the island's Venetian rule
04:16from the 14th century.
04:20Before the British occupation,
04:22his ancestors helped control this land for 400 years.
04:29That's their fabulous house.
04:32Today, he divides his time between London and the island.
04:36Let me help you and welcome you
04:38to this lovely little beach.
04:42Peter, you didn't come earlier.
04:43You would be able to swim with our dolphins.
04:46Oh, no, there were dolphins.
04:47Yes, yeah.
04:48Yeah, this is merely my wife.
04:50Yeah, my suffering wife.
04:52And how long have you lived here?
04:54Well, we have been in the villa 12 years ago.
04:59Yes.
04:59In London, you don't live in Kensington, do you?
05:01Yes, we do.
05:02Perfect.
05:03So this is from you that we call it Kensington on sea here.
05:07Although the count is of Italian descent,
05:12it's the influence of the 50-year British occupation on the island
05:16that has made him one of Corfu's staunchest Anglophiles.
05:19Well, let's go and have a ginger beer.
05:20What do you think?
05:21A ginger beer?
05:22Is that very Greek?
05:23It's been left over by the British
05:26when Corfu was under the British protectorate
05:28and they're producing it since.
05:30I find this quite extraordinary.
05:33It's got even Greek writing on it.
05:35The lemon, the ginger, and the ginger beer.
05:39And the fizz of the ginger beer as it opens.
05:41I used to make ginger beer when I was young
05:43and the bottles always exploded.
05:45Anyway, to your good health.
05:46To your good health.
05:47And as they say, Yasu.
05:48Yasu.
05:51The legacy of the British protectorate over the 50 years,
05:56where should one start, where should one finish,
05:58it goes on and on and on.
05:59The brass bands.
06:01Edward Lear.
06:02Gerald Durrell.
06:04Lord Guildford established the first Greek university in Corfu.
06:10How extraordinary.
06:11It's another thing which was introduced by the British.
06:14These islands have got a very special feeling.
06:16Is it because they're in the Mediterranean
06:19rather than in the Aegean?
06:20There's something about the Ionian Islands
06:22that seems to have a kind of independence.
06:23No, I'll tell you what it is.
06:24It's the Western influence.
06:26The rest of Greece had the Ottoman influence.
06:31They felt that they're apart from the Western civilization.
06:36That's why you have fantastic composers,
06:40fantastic painters, fantastic poets,
06:43fantastic writers,
06:44all influenced from the West.
06:53The Count suggests I go to Corfu town,
06:56which is dominated by the towering 15th century Venetian fortress,
07:00one of the reasons Corfu was never occupied by the Ottoman Empire.
07:04Today, the town is home to 30,000 people
07:12and an astonishing number of house martins and swallows.
07:15It's beautiful architecture and narrow streets
07:23have left the centre of the town unspoiled.
07:25I'm drawn to the main square,
07:30where the locals have gathered
07:31for the most traditional of British customs.
07:39Well, this is an odd scene.
07:41We're in the middle of Corfu town.
07:43We've got the British Palace over there.
07:45And this is the cricket ground, and there's the cricket pitch,
07:47but we're practically on it now.
07:48It's a sylvan scene.
07:52It could be...
07:53Well, it could be...
07:54It could be England.
07:57But it's Corfu.
08:01Cricket is one of Corfu's favourite sports.
08:06Teams here play up to 100 games a year
08:09on this unique sporting ground.
08:11I've never seen such a small ground.
08:14There are fielders just out amongst...
08:16It's sort of in the car park.
08:17There are chaps on bikes who are virtually on the boundary.
08:21Cafes over there,
08:22but they've all got nets in front of them
08:23so you don't get a smashed teacup.
08:27This is jolly strange.
08:28I mean, there are marks for cars right up...
08:31Right up to the edge here.
08:32They must get smashed sometimes.
08:35Woo!
08:39It's on the road.
08:41It hit the holidays Corfu car,
08:43which fielded it nicely, just stopped it.
08:45But I think...
08:46I think we'll call that a six, don't we?
08:49It's a big day for the combined Corfu team.
08:52Before this series,
08:53they'd never beaten the fearsome MCC from England.
08:57But today, they might be in with a chance.
09:00The visitors seem to be put off by playing in a car park.
09:06Something that wasn't around
09:07when the British Navy started playing here.
09:11Local Corfu, watching the game,
09:14they started slowly learning the rules.
09:16Yeah.
09:16And in 1893,
09:18we had the first cricket club in Corfu
09:21playing cricket against the English.
09:23And so that's when the Corfu love of cricket began.
09:26Cricket, now we have 21 clubs all over Greece.
09:29And this ground here is unique.
09:30Keep going, boys!
09:32Come back!
09:34This is Alastair.
09:36Hi.
09:37We think it's getting a bit close now,
09:39because they've got 29s.
09:40We've got four more overs.
09:4224 to win off four overs.
09:44Possible?
09:45Yes.
09:45Oh, OK.
09:47Can you do that?
09:48Confidence.
10:07They've got to get two runs of three balls.
10:11I mean, this is really taking it to the wire, you know.
10:15Unfortunately, it wasn't the Corfu team's day.
10:23We did our best.
10:25Has your team ever played the MCC in England?
10:29No.
10:29Would you like to do that?
10:31Of course.
10:31It's a dream for every player here to play in England.
10:35That's a dream.
10:36Does your family play cricket?
10:38Yeah.
10:39My dad played for national team.
10:41Did he?
10:42My grandfather too.
10:43And now I am playing for the national team.
10:47All family.
10:48And I love it.
10:51Maybe Corfuids are proud of their adopted British pastimes,
10:55because it makes them feel different from the rest of Greece.
10:58And they worship their own special saint as well, St. Spiridon.
11:05He's thought to have performed miracles, saving the islanders from a plague
11:09and driving off invaders in the 18th century.
11:13Curiously enough, one of their festivals celebrating their saint
11:16resulted in the whole island taking up another British tradition.
11:20Lovely cacophony of sound.
11:23I can hear a band tuning up.
11:25I think I've come to the right place, chaps in uniforms.
11:28Follow this one in.
11:29Being married to a musician, I think there's almost nothing more thrilling
11:43than hearing a band tuning up.
11:46Once you get the drums going, you can't hear much else.
11:48Bizarrely, Queen Victoria is responsible for this adopted passion.
11:55She refused to allow her navy to play at a St. Spiridon festival,
12:00so the locals formed their own marching bands.
12:04I'm meeting Spiros, the president, and Spiros, the band leader.
12:08St. Spiros is the local saint.
12:10Ah, he's the patron saint of the...
12:12That's why I mean, the majority of all Corfeots are Spiros, are called Spiros.
12:16You're both called Spiros?
12:16You're both Spiros, yes.
12:17Are there more Spiroses here, do you think?
12:19Half of them.
12:20Half of them are Spiros?
12:22Is there a feminine version of Spiros?
12:24Is there a girl's name?
12:26Spiridula.
12:27Spiridula.
12:28Spiridula.
12:29Spiridula.
12:29Femilidula.
12:33There's a lovely slight smell of brasso coming out of this cupboard.
12:36Everything polished, looking so shiny.
12:38How exciting, an entire cupboard filled with these ancient-looking helmets.
12:44Tell me, how old are these helmets?
12:47Some of them are more than 100 years.
12:49Are they really?
12:50Yeah.
12:51And how many bands are there?
12:52Is this the only one?
12:53In GoFu, no, no.
12:54In GoFu, there are 20 bands.
12:5620?
12:5620 bands.
12:572,500 musicians.
12:59Unbelievable.
13:00In 120,000 people, inhabitants.
13:03That's quite extraordinary, isn't it?
13:04It's an extra tradition.
13:07It's something unbelievable.
13:07And is this band a special one?
13:09Is it old?
13:09This one is the oldest one.
13:10The oldest.
13:11From 1840.
13:12How fantastic.
13:13Yeah.
13:27I think they've had literally their marching orders.
13:29And in a second from now, we're going to hear the band in full flight.
13:32I think I'd better move or pick up an instrument, one or the other.
13:35I think I'll move.
13:36He's three years old.
13:49He's three years old.
13:51Do you think you would join one of the marching bands?
13:53For sure.
13:53For sure, yes.
13:54All Corpheus.
13:56All Corpheus.
13:56In all houses, one or two musicians is definitely...
14:05In all houses?
14:06We learn English and music.
14:08English and music.
14:09I love that.
14:11I love that.
14:12It's wonderful.
14:19This is just an extraordinary community.
14:20There are people here who age between eight and much, much older than that.
14:24They've all grouped together in this extraordinary thing of music which repulses through all the Greeks.
14:29It's fitting that the band finishes their march at the British Palace, where the island's British legacy began all those years ago.
14:48A ferry is taking me across the narrow strip of water to the mainland of Greece to explore this country's northern borders.
15:04I shall travel across a land shaped by generations of invading foreign empires to its far eastern corner.
15:18I shall travel across a land of Greece to the mainland of Greece to the mainland of Greece.
15:48What we think of Greece is its beauty, what it's given to us in the way of arts and science.
15:54And yet what people came here for was business, was money.
15:58So money fades away.
16:00And what remains and what keeps people visiting countries is the beauty.
16:10Unlike Corfu, mainland Greece was controlled between the 15th and 19th centuries by the mighty Ottomans from Turkey.
16:18But one famous British Romantic Poet helped end their rule.
16:27This is Zitsa, a remote hilltop village in northwest Greece.
16:31It's 1809, it's October, and Lord Byron, the poet, mad, bad, and dangerous to know, is travelling through this region, through this pretty little village of Zitsa, with his companion, Hobhouse.
16:44It's a tiny little village up in the mountains.
16:47It's not really the place you'd expect to find Lord Byron.
16:50I can't tell you how small Zitsa is.
16:53I mean, on the map.
16:57Well, you can't see it.
17:00Well, I can, obviously, but you probably can't.
17:03Oh, yeah.
17:07Byron was one of our greatest poets, and he was also an influential political activist.
17:13This was his first trip to Greece, and his experiences here ultimately inspired him to take up arms with the Greeks to fight for their independence from the Ottoman Empire.
17:23marquis marquis logiotatidis is a local mountain guide and baron enthusiast it's lovely to be here
17:32this is this is my baron moment okay he was popular in greece wasn't he he's popular the
17:38greeks are quite proud that he was helping during the revelation against the ottoman empire yes
17:43also in a diplomatic level i understand that the name baron has been popular sometimes for boys is
17:49that right yes many people are called vironas in greek the greek name is vironas and where are we
17:54where's this street this is the main square of zitsa and this street is named also after lord byron you
18:00see lord vironos lord vironos how excellent it's his street we're going to go on horses we're going to
18:09go horses the horses wait for us up a little bit further up should we go and get them yeah why not
18:20we're retracing part of byron's journey in 1809 he traveled on horseback from janina to tepellene in
18:28albania our destination is an old monastery where he spent the night so this is the actual route that
18:42byron took yes we're we are exactly at the same road that byron was taking to go to the monastery
18:49when he came here and he was traveling to albania he was traveling to albania to meet the alipasa yeah
18:55which was the ruler of the whole area here of the western greece he was a bit of a bad hat wasn't he
19:00he was he was there he did many nasty things he even he even drowned his harem in the lake in you on
19:07and now how put them in a bargain in the water he put them in a bag yes and what set up the neck or
19:13something oh yeah yeah with stones tough old days on the way baron worked on his semi-autobiographical
19:22poem child harold's pilgrimage his head was full of poetry full of poetry i brought a poem along with
19:30me in actual fact which was about zitsa okay let's see if i can read it here we are and this is what he
19:36said mount monastic zitsa from thy shady brow and our small but favored spot of holy ground where air
19:45we gaze around above below what rainbow tints what magic charms are found
19:50rock river forest mountain all abound and bluest skies that harmonize the whole beneath the distant
20:04torrent's rushing sound tells where the volumed cataract doth roll between those hanging rocks that
20:10shock yet please the soul during his walk yeah he found all those places that you say it's an amazing
20:20amazing part of greece here it's all mountains and pure pure nature oh the monastery we're here so
20:29this is where lord byron slept and here is also a sign that says when he was here oh 13th of october 1809
20:44back then this was a sanctuary from bandits and thieves
20:49a refuge where greeks could still practice christianity despite living under ottoman islamic rule
21:03unlike byron we made it to the monastery in time violent storms are common in these parts
21:09exactly like the storm that caught lord byron and hobhouse and they're riding to zitsa
21:24perhaps a noble lord mad bad and dangerous to know is they're looking over us on our journey here
21:28and they put him up for the night i think they might put me up the night i mean do i put over or does it
21:35look sort of looks a bit cowardly
21:44look at that's what's going on byron was impressed with the monastery wines here saying that they were
21:56some of the best in europe
22:03this is thrilling even the wine explodes fantastic this is brewed here on the premises
22:08it's red champagne no wonder byron's dead
22:22i just say the name baron and it goes mad
22:26baron never did see the greeks win their independence
22:30although he handed over part of his personal fortune to fund the greek resistance
22:34he died of a fever in 1824 before seeing action
22:38because of this he's remembered in greece to this day as a hero
22:52the further east i go along greece's northern borders the more i leave the western influences behind
22:58greece was part of the vast turkish ottoman empire between the 15th and 19th centuries
23:07and in the small rural town of nigrita there is a unique remnant of this empire's legacy
23:13of this empire's legacy
23:15Thanks, Van Genieff.
23:21Hello.
23:22Hello, Anna. You're welcome.
23:25Hello.
23:26We're going over to the church.
23:29We're having a blessing before an oil-wrestling event.
23:34Although it's the national event,
23:37we're going over to the church.
23:40We're having a blessing before an oil-wrestling event.
23:44Although it's the national sport of Turkey,
23:46this is one of the few places in Greece where they hold tournaments.
23:51And the whole community worships their fighters like stars.
23:56It's a long way from cricket and brass bands.
24:06The man who's going to explain this extraordinary custom
24:09is Spiros Salonikios.
24:12Hello, Anna.
24:13Tell me.
24:14So, oil?
24:21Stand back, because it's kind of flicking all over the place.
24:29And the trousers, they look very complicated, very intricate.
24:32The panteleone is a big pair.
24:34They are the Turkish orology.
24:35They are the Turkish orology.
24:37The panteleone is a big pair.
24:38They took the Turks a bit later.
24:40And it's a big pair of two pairs.
24:43The preparation is messy, as every inch of the body must be oiled up to make the wrestlers
24:51as slippery as possible.
24:54Under Ottoman rule, wrestling was one of the few sports locals were allowed to participate
24:58in.
24:59These bouts became bitter fights between sworn enemies.
25:03Today there are still Turkish wrestlers involved.
25:06Gentlemen, I look forward to seeing you fighting.
25:09The situation is possible, but if the battle begins, everything is finished.
25:15The enemy is counter-cumption.
25:17We can't do it.
25:29I have to sit down.
25:31I just want to get some tied up in this.
25:32You know, somehow I've been mistaken for an oily wrestler.
25:35It could happen.
25:36I'm just going to take a bit of a wide skirting round here.
25:38Yes, yes, yes.
25:45An oil wrestler wins his match by picking up his opponent
25:48and carrying him for five paces or throwing him on his back.
25:55Not much of that so far,
25:58although they seem to spend a good deal of time
25:59working their fingers down one another's shorts.
26:01He puts his hand right inside the trousers.
26:08Right inside the trousers.
26:09They have helped to put him in his hand.
26:13He takes it and takes it very well.
26:16Apparently, this famous move,
26:19involving the finger grip, was honed centuries ago.
26:22Most of the older ones were the ones who had been a long time
26:29because they are my arms and the fingers are strong.
26:36It looks like we have a winner.
26:44The Turkish wrestler has defeated all his opponents.
26:47They're just having a whip round for the wrestlers.
27:01I think they're probably calling for the needy wrestlers or something like that.
27:05Show your gratitude, that's what I'm saying.
27:13It is extraordinary to think that here, in this little tiny Greek place,
27:17this phenomenal Turkish tradition is going on.
27:21There was one Turk fighting there today who was very anxious to say
27:24that he doesn't care who people are,
27:26he doesn't think that there should be Greeks and Turks,
27:28he thinks that everybody under the skin are brothers, everyone.
27:35It's very touching.
27:37This is still a very sort of sensitive area.
27:40Turks, Greeks, Muslims, Christians.
27:44And above all, wrestling.
27:47Nearly 2,000 years ago, in the northeast region of Greece,
27:52Nearly 2,000 years ago, in the northeast region of Greece, something happened that was to
28:14have a profound influence on European history. Only 20 years after the death of Christ, the
28:24Apostle St Paul travelled to Philippi to preach the Gospel for the very first time on European
28:30shores. He tried to preach Christianity to the people here who'd never heard of it.
28:36One woman was very receptive to the things he was saying, and her name was Lydia, and
28:40he baptised her here, in this river. She was not only the first woman to be baptised in
28:47Europe, she was the first European to be baptised. And now, in her honour, they've built a baptistry,
28:53a little church here which is only for baptisms.
29:05Nearly all Greeks are Orthodox Christians. They consider their religion, with its rites
29:10and rituals, to be the closest link to the first days of Christianity.
29:17Before it's immersed in the water, three times for the baptism, there's some oil put over it.
29:24It's incredible to think Christianity spread from here, across the whole of Europe, and then
29:38the rest of the world.
29:43The port city of Kavala, a few miles from Philippi, occupies a strategic position in between
29:49Europe and Asia, a crossroads between West and East.
29:59Here, successive invasions have left their mark, bringing with them their religion and culture.
30:08Journalist Isaac Keripidis was born in the region.
30:11Thank you so much. This is fantastic. So this is a very, very ancient city, isn't it?
30:18Everyone has passed from this city. Alexander the Great, the ancient Greeks, the autumn, everyone was here.
30:24So Kavala must feel as though it's an orphan. It almost has no parents, or everybody is its parents.
30:31I think everybody is his parents, yes.
30:35And is this now essentially a Christian city?
30:38Yes, a hundred percent Christian. It's very hard to find any Muslim here nowadays in Kavala.
30:44But in the Ottoman days, there must have been mosques here?
30:47Completely. There were many mosques here. Actually, if you see St. Nicholas now, the church here.
30:52This one here?
30:53Yeah, exactly. Not because of a mosque. There are some things that remind you that it's a mosque rather than a church.
30:59Than a Christian church.
31:01Some people, they claim that West is finished here, and after Kavala, start East.
31:07So this was the dividing line.
31:11This town is defined by one event in history.
31:14Following the Balkan Wars, new boundaries were drawn up in 1923 to form the modern Greece we know today.
31:22The intention was to make Greece and Turkey, as much as possible, two single religion states.
31:29Kavala was emptied of Muslims, and the population replaced with immigrants from Turkey.
31:35So 400,000 Greek Muslims left the region, and over one million Turkish Christians took their place.
31:43It's a very, very sad story. Most of the Christians who came here to live, the first five years, it was extremely hard.
31:52They used the Topago factories as a house.
31:57As a refugee asylum.
31:58Exactly. And they were sleeping for a couple of years, one next to another.
32:03It was something that changed the history of Greece and Turkey, I believe.
32:10Because people who were Muslim, but were Greek-speaking, were suddenly thrown into a land where they had their own religion, but they couldn't speak the language.
32:21And similarly, people who felt themselves to belong to the Black Sea, suddenly coming here, leaving everything behind.
32:28Greece is evolving all the time, because the recent events you're talking about aren't even a hundred years ago, Isaac.
32:35Exactly. Exactly.
32:36This catastrophe, not even a hundred years ago.
32:39There's not a single grandfather nowadays, or so, who cannot have a sad story to say.
33:01There's an old man called Minas Zaharyadis, who's a survivor of the exchange.
33:06He's in his late 90s now, but he was six years old when he came here with his mother from Samson on the Black Sea in Turkey.
33:16Families on both sides suffered terribly during that period, leaving them with agonising memories.
33:24Joanna?
33:27Kyrie, you have things here on the sideboard. Are these your family's things?
33:33And, um, these photographs, who is this?
33:55Who is this?
33:56Here are my parents.
33:59Do you remember your father like this?
34:02Of course, I remember my father.
34:07But the Turks, all the first orders that went to exile,
34:16they were sent to them.
34:18No one didn't leave.
34:20There were many people, very many people.
34:25All the first party, only in Samsunta,
34:28all the first party.
34:37I want to tell you about this thing.
34:44The farmers.
34:47I didn't know of these terrible happenings.
34:50From the 27 people who told me that I was here,
34:55only two were men.
34:57Because they were evil.
34:59They were on the walls.
35:01They were closed.
35:02They didn't get them.
35:04They were all girls and children.
35:10And I was only here for now.
35:1296 years now.
35:1496 years.
35:20He and I had someone on the scene.
35:22Who was this thing?
35:24He was hormonal.
35:25They had a lot of hair.
35:26I had a lot of hair.
35:27I was looking for a lot more.
35:28The other times,
35:29I would not speak again.
35:30Whoever went or something came,
35:31He could have been coming.
35:32And he was there for them.
35:33I was there for them.
35:34I was there for them.
35:35The reason I go to get them,
35:36the reason I was there was it.
35:38Xanthi town in the northeast region of Thrace is an area with its own distinct culture.
35:59When the present borders of Greece were created in 1923,
36:03whole populations had been forced to move according to their religion,
36:07but a number of Muslims, some 120,000, remained in this region.
36:12Many still live hidden from the world, near the Bulgarian border.
36:20Anna Stammu from the Muslim Association of Greece is taking me to one of these communities.
36:25It seems so remote around here.
36:28Those villages are like lost in the mountains.
36:31Do they choose to remain isolated, do you think?
36:34It was their need.
36:36There are people that have their own culture, their own traditions.
36:40They have been Muslims since ever. This is their homeland.
36:48This was Bulgaria until it was granted to Greece in 1923.
36:52Until the 1990s, the Muslim communities here lived in a restricted military zone,
36:57making it difficult to leave.
36:59They are in an area that has a very sensitive balance here.
37:02Yes.
37:03They were reluctant at first that we visited.
37:06Were they?
37:07Yes, because they do not know what to expect.
37:10What, for us to visit today?
37:12Yes, with the cameras.
37:19It must be so hard to make a living here.
37:21It's not easy. Nothing is easy.
37:28Should we get out?
37:31We've stopped in Malivia, a village of about a thousand inhabitants.
37:35Welcome to our village, Malivia.
37:37What are you doing?
37:38It's an agricultural area where they grow tobacco, and they have a huge struggle in this area.
37:54How is the tobacco crop this year?
37:56Unfortunately, they sell the tobacco in very, very low prices.
38:08In recent years, subsidies have been cut for tobacco, reducing its value.
38:13But the villagers still rely on the cash crop as their main source of income.
38:21This is a skilled hand rolling up a nice fat one.
38:23Sometimes people roll it up amazingly thin.
38:25This looks very generous.
38:30Very nice.
38:32Not very beautifully done.
38:34Le voilà .
38:36Maybe sort of push that in.
38:38The income that comes from the tobacco is not enough for a family to live.
38:43Because now if a family sells two euros per kilo, the tobacco, they cannot support their lives.
38:50Two euros per kilo?
38:51Yes.
38:52They would like to show me their tobacco fields.
38:55The whole family gets involved with the planting, as huge harvests are needed to make money.
39:01I have a feeling it's the women's job to plant them, and the men's job to water them, and they've gone in.
39:07So she has this really back-breaking job.
39:09So it's interesting, they're making with a dibber, they're making the hole, in it goes, the root in, they're watered in, but they're not pressed in.
39:19Is it?
39:20Is it?
39:21No, no, no.
39:22Is it?
39:23A really tough work, I should think, dropping that lovely skill of doing it with almost straight legs.
39:29Oh, look at this, this is the beautiful tool.
39:32Bent like that, so not straight on, but bent like that.
39:35And you make a little drawing like that.
39:37In like that?
39:38No.
39:39Enough?
39:40Nice.
39:41This is obviously not quite how it's done, you don't have your personal servant usually handing you.
39:48Funny one's tempting, no?
39:50No, okay.
39:51Ah, not deep enough.
39:53Okay, a bit more tack to it.
39:55It'll take a year for me to make enough tobacco to make one cigarette.
40:00There will be forever in some foreign soil, a little cigarette that is forever England.
40:05Although life is hard for the villagers, they're proud of their traditions and autonomy.
40:23Children receive two to three hours extra schooling a day to learn the Koran.
40:31But their culture is changing.
40:34They now have mobile phones and go to school in multicultural Xanthi.
40:39So show me your phone.
40:42Hey.
40:43I'm Camille.
40:44Camille.
40:45And Tulai.
40:46Tulai.
40:47Nice to meet you.
40:48How wonderful, thank you.
40:52These two teenagers represent a new generation, educated in Xanthi and looking for work away from the village.
41:01Would you like to live here always?
41:03Not always, to be honest.
41:04Actually it is very boring here because I don't have anything to do.
41:09We don't have as Xanthi cafes or restaurants or cinemas, theatres or bowling centres, something like that.
41:16And for young people it is very difficult, to be honest.
41:20So it would be very nice to have cafes, especially internet cafes.
41:24Young people when you are trying to break into the world and start a life.
41:29Yes, yes.
41:30We like more the city life.
41:31Yes, of course.
41:32Your parents have lived and worked here, stayed here.
41:35Yes.
41:36And your grandparents stayed here.
41:38You might leave and work somewhere else.
41:41I would be the first person in my family to work in Xanthi for example or...
41:46Yes.
41:47The first girl maybe to work away from home.
41:50Yes, maybe.
41:51Maybe.
41:52Eh, Faristo, how lovely.
41:56I bought these caps for my mum.
41:59Yeah, I appreciate it.
42:00My favourite colour is red, the colour of passion.
42:03Oh, oh, the village won't keep you.
42:08You'll be away.
42:10One thing I'm learning is that this is a land of constant change. Nothing stays the same.
42:22Throughout history, this far north-east corner has swapped hands and been fought over more than anywhere else I've been in Greece.
42:30Greece's present border claimed some of the land previously owned by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.
42:37Now tens of thousands of troops are stationed up here to protect its frontier.
42:43And I've got permission to see them in action.
42:46It's taken us four months to arrange this meeting and all military establishments are extremely sensitive.
42:52But this is more than sensitive.
42:55Everybody thinks this is their land and that they shouldn't be there.
42:58There are old resentments, old sorrows which never go away.
43:02So up here we've basically got a Christian army facing, yet again, a Muslim army on the other side.
43:12It's all peaceful, but it's very tense.
43:19So much so that to reach the outpost right on the border, the army insists I travel in an army truck.
43:25So this is the frontier land, Colonel.
43:28Yes, yes, yes.
43:29In command is Colonel Manolakos.
43:31And it's correct to say, Colonel, that we must not film in this area.
43:35It's sensitive to film that way.
43:37We don't have any help from friends' relatives.
43:41No one can take a photo of them without asking them.
43:45Absolutely.
43:48So our cameras are unable to show what I can see.
43:51An identical Turkish outpost just a kilometre away.
43:56We are so close to Turkey here that we can almost see what their troops are having for dinner.
44:02Turkey, Bulgaria.
44:04Most of these soldiers are just 18, on national service for nine months.
44:14The nation's security rests on their shoulders.
44:17And how long do they have to man the pill boxes? I'm sure we can't show them.
44:27And how long do they have to man the pill boxes? I'm sure we can't show them.
44:39So when they're up here, they live here, they eat here. This is home.
44:46After thousands of years of changing borders, it's not surprising that tensions still exist.
45:03For these soldiers, it's an uneasy truce.
45:06For these soldiers, we have to be able to fight.
45:08The silver and the flank.
45:09The silver and the flank.
45:10We are ready to fight.
45:16This is as far east as I can go in Greece.
45:19The footprints here, everywhere around here is history. Everywhere.
45:24And we look out and it looks like just the most peaceful, pacific scene you could imagine.
45:30Yet I'm travelling with soldiers, armed car, a sensitive border area.
45:36Isn't the world a strange place?
45:38It's a strange place.
45:48Over on ITV3 next, Johnny thinks he's in love with a rose in our courtroom-based drama series, The Jury.
45:55While over on ITV2, you never know what to expect from host Keith Lemon.
46:00Peter Andre and Verne Troyer join the gang on Celebrity Juice.
46:08Thank you, Jesse, for helping to return to the corner of What's up during the War.
46:15Bye.
Be the first to comment