All language subtitles for Greece With Simon Reeve S01E02

I'm just off the coast
outside Athens

and I'm beginning the second leg of
my journey around Greece.

Just look at the size of
these ships.

So, these are the Athens docks.

Shipping, of course, is an industry
that Greece has been famous for.

It's an industry that has made some
Greeks very rich.

Greek firms control the world's
largest merchant shipping fleet

by tonnage.

Including a quarter of the world's
oil tankers.

Greek shipping tycoons benefit from
lavish tax breaks,

an extraordinary quirk enshrined in
the Greek constitution.

For many of the rich here,

their wealth has actually increased
in recent years.

It's a mad world, eh?

Despite the country's
economic crisis,

thousands of rich Greeks still seem
to be doing rather well.

HE RESPONDS IN GREEK AND LAUGHS

See you!

For ordinary workers, the story's a
bit different.

Just down the road is the
Perama shipyard.

As recently as 20 years ago, 15,000
people worked here building

and repairing ships.

Tens of thousands more were
employed indirectly.

Now it's more like a ship graveyard.

There is just one ship being worked
on, a ferry that's being refitted.

There's a lot of intense activity on
this ship,

but there doesn't seem to be
much else going on.

How much work have you had
during the last five years,

during the crisis?

Can you survive on that?

The nation gifts them generous
tax breaks,

but Greece's shipping bosses have
outsourced work to other

countries, putting at least 80% of
shipbuilders here on the dole.

It's quite sad to see a once
great industry

brought to its knees.

It's not just shipbuilding.

The crisis here has had a profound
impact on the entire Greek economy.

In five years, it's shrunk by more
than a quarter.

That's far more than any
other country

affected by the global
economic crisis.

I headed off across the
Greek mainland.

My first destination was the
beautiful Peloponnese peninsula

to the south-west of Athens.

I'm crossing from the Greek mainland
on that side to the Peloponnese on

that side, which is separated by the
Corinth Canal.

What a sight.

It's not wide enough now for most of
the big oceangoing container ships

and the biggest cruise ships, but
it's still phenomenal.

Just a few miles, length,

but it saves ships a round trip

of something like 450 miles around
the Peloponnese.

That's where I'm heading next.

Oh, I'm going to get the car.

The Peloponnese has an
extraordinary history.

The first Olympic Games were
held here.

The peninsula was home to the
ancient cities of Sparta

and Corinth.

As Greece's agricultural heartland,
most of the country's olive oil

now comes from here, as well as huge
quantities of fruit and vegetables.

Just look at this here.

It starts to give you a sense of the
scale of what's happening here.

You can see the plastic tunnels.

And this is all for strawberries.

They're a very profitable crop for
farmers in this area.

Millions more Greeks used to work in
the fields.

After Greece's economy started to
take off,

many people moved to the cities in
search of a better life.

Now, it's foreign workers who do
much of the backbreaking labour.

They're often exploited.

I left the farmland of the
Peloponnese peninsula

and began my journey to
Greece's North.

Here we are.

I'll get my bag out.

The train cuts right across the
Greek mainland,

through beautiful scenery.

Greek trains have been a huge drain
on the country.

Vast sums have been ploughed into
building and running major public

infrastructure like the
rail network.

Even though Greece has some of the
lowest passenger levels of any

railway in Europe.

Greek railway has lost billions and
billions of pounds.

They haven't sold enough tickets,

they pay enormous salaries to
their staff,

and one government minister actually
said, at one point,

that it would be cheaper to send
everyone who wants to travel on a

train by taxi.

And he wasn't entirely joking.

For years, successive Greek
governments borrowed

and squandered enormous sums.

Greeks lived way beyond their means.

The train took me to Thessaloniki,
Greece's second city.

I'd arrived in time for one of the
biggest events on the calendar here.

The national military parade.

It commemorates Greece's heroic
resistance in World War II.

BRASS BAND PLAYS

They still have National Service
in Greece,

and the top brass love to put on
a show.

Now, we're getting more into a
parade that's...

...this is like something you'd see
in Red Square or Pyongyang.

Greece still has a
tense relationship

with neighbouring Turkey, but, even
taking that into account,

Greeks spend a fortune on
their military.

Bloody hell.

Greece has a huge army with almost
twice as many tanks as the UK and

France combined.

The size of Greece's military
spending is quite extraordinary.

For years, Greece, as in Greece,

was one of the biggest arms
importers in the world.

The world.

One of the major providers of
the weapons,

and a major source of Greece's
financial problems, is Germany.

Greece has bought scores of highly
advanced German tanks.

Greece spent nearly two billion
euros on German tanks.

It spent three billion on
German submarines.

Before the financial crisis,
German banks and officials

were among those encouraging Greece
to take out vast loans.

It's alleged that several German
corporations then paid huge bribes

to corrupt Greek officials to
persuade them

to spend money the country
couldn't afford.

Greece has made terrible mistakes.

Taxes haven't been paid, money has
been wasted, but bankers and giant

European corporations helped to get
Greece into the mess it's in.

It's not surprising, then, that many
Greeks resent Germany insisting

on years of severe austerity here,
and on Greece paying back its debts.

Look at this!

The bars and the restaurants here
are completely rammed.

It's fair to say that austerity
doesn't come naturally to

most Greeks.

The north of the country couldn't be
more different to the familiar

Greek imagery of sun-baked islands
and aquamarine seas.

Look at these mountains.

It's stunning up here.

This is a part of Greece that most
people don't even know exists.

I was in the Pindus Mountains, close
to the border with Albania.

I was heading towards one of the
most dramatic sights in Europe.

My God, look at that!

This is the Vikos Gorge.

It's one of the biggest, deepest
gorges in the world.

Limestone cliffs tower up to
1,600 feet over the river below.

Hello!

HIS VOICE ECHOES

The north of Greece contains
hundreds of square miles of

stunning wilderness.

These mountains are still home to
some of Europe's largest

wild predators.

Conservationist Melina Avgerinou
took me to meet them.

Bears!

We're in Greece.

There are bears here!

This sanctuary is run by the
charity, Arcturos.

Wow.

Look. On his legs.

Heya!

SIMON MAKES KISSING SOUNDS

Look at you!

We killed our bears in Britain
centuries ago,

but there are still some in the wild
in Greece.

Most of the bears here have been
rescued from people around the

region who were keeping them
for entertainment.

They will train them to perform in
front of people

in small villages,

wandering around, like a small
private circus.

What, they were dancing bears?

Dancing bears, yes.

Incredibly, until recently,

Greece still had a tradition of
dancing bears.

Arcturos was instrumental in ending
the dark trade.

They would train them when they were
very young.

Usually, they were killing their
mother in order to take them from

the den, and the procedure of
training is very hard,

because they put the chains
through their lips and their noses,

they break their teeth and their
claws, and they usually train them

on hot metal stilts so that they
will do this move that they do to...

...lift their paws off the ground and
they, at the same time, they

would hit the tambourine to the
bears so they would combine the

noise with the pain they feel,

and then they would perform in front
of humans.

It was illegal in Greece, but this
law was not enforced,

mainly because there was no place
for the animals to go

when they were taken from
their owners.

What Arcturos did is that we created
the sanctuary

and we cooperated with the police.

They confiscated the bears and they
gave them a place to go.

While the horrific dancing bear
trade has been stopped in Greece at

least, the country's bears still
need protecting.

This is a wild bear's damage.

Melina, just here, the fence has
been taken down by wild bears.

Yes, exactly.

We fix this fence all the time.

There's wild bears out there.

I love it.

Brown bears can attack flocks of
sheep and crops.

There's wolves as well here in this
wild corner of Europe.

Melina took me to meet a
local shepherd.

Yassas.

Have you encountered bears in this
area before,

have you come into conflict
with them?

Are there actually packs of wild
wolves roaming around...

...roaming around here?

Farmers used to shoot wolves and
bears to defend their flocks

but we can't keep wiping out our
native wildlife.

Now, Arcturos is helping the
farmers to do something wonderful

and live with them.

They're using old-fashioned methods,
powerful sheepdogs.

What a magnificent beast, look at it
as well.

Characteristic of these dogs is that
they will...

...you can see the female dog
sleeping in the sheep,

so, even if wolves or a bear
comes now,

they won't chase it away and leave
the animals unprotected,

they will just gather it and stay
here and it will keep it safe,

and bark, chase, bark the bear away,
not chase it away.

The sanctuary has now supplied
more than 1,000 traditional Greek

sheepdogs to farmers across
northern Greece.

So, all you need to do now is train
these dogs to milk the sheep

and they're doing the whole job
for you!

What's happening here is inspiring.

They're proving people can live in
harmony with large predators.

Hopefully, it will encourage new
plans to rewild large areas of

Europe, including Britain.

The existence of these vast areas of
wilderness is a reminder Greece

only developed recently.

Up until the 1950s, most of
Greece was...

...farmland and agriculture

and very basic industry.

And then somebody realised that
there was something under the

ground, that if they dug it up and
burned it,

they could power an
Industrial Revolution.

Wow, look at the size of that
power station.

The north of Greece is coal country.

There are massive coalfields here
that helped to transform Greece.

It's a resource that still plays a
crucial role.

I went to one of the huge mines that
helps Greece keep its lights on.

So, this is Miltos over here.

Miltos is one of the bosses...

- Mining engineer.
- Mining engineer.

I'm a mining engineer, yes.

He's one of the bosses!

He's going to take us out to show us
the mine.

Very difficult weather conditions
during the winter.

- Yeah, you get snow here.
- Yes.

This is part of Greece where you get
proper seasons,

not just sunshine all year round.

Minus ten degrees or minus 20
degrees during winter.

In Greece? It can get to minus 20?

In this area of Greece, yes. OK.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at the scale of it!

This is less than half of the mine.

It's enormous.

More than 30 square miles in size.

The mine supplies Greece's two
largest power stations.

We have 3,000 people operating all
year long, even on Christmas.

Because if this closes down, so
does Greece.

When this mine has a problem,
Athens, the capital,

with four and a half million people,
has a problem with electricity.

As much as half of Greece's total
electricity needs

are met by burning coal from
these mines.

- This is the blasting area.
- Right.

So we will go down there.

They are expecting us.

They blast several times a day here,

and we're just going to the scene of
the next one.

The coal itself could be up to 170
metres below the surface.

Getting to it requires
serious force.

HE SPEAKS GREEK

Don't step on the blue wire, OK?
It's explosives.

OK.It's a safety fuse.

We have 140 blast holes,

with 4.2 tonnes of explosives.

4.2 tonnes?4.2 tonnes.

This is the primer.

So, that's the explosive that's
going in there?

That comes out like a sort of white
foam. Bizarre.

And look at that up there, it's got
on the sides,

"mixing solutions for an
explosive situation".

Right, so, now they're going to
connect it up.

Well, they're off.

So, this is detonating cord.

This is something that burns,

- not blasts.
- Right.

He will give us one minute.

One minute until four tonnes of
- explosives goes up?
- Yes.

This is, this is an interesting way
of doing it.

So, you don't have a button that you
press from a long distance?

No, no, no, no.

He will give the initiation here
with a match.

- - He lights it with a match?
- Yes.
- Wow.

And if we stay here...

...nice to meet you.

So, how do we get out of here?

When Markos will light it up,

we will have to start running
together with him to go on the

track. OK?

We start running? OK.

- Start running.
- OK, fine.

Is he completely mad?

I keep thinking he's joking.

You only have 60.

- We understand.
- Seconds.

- Yeah.
- OK?

MILTOS SPEAKS GREEK

- We are starting.
- OK.

It's gone, it's gone.

Let's go. Quick.

Quick, quick, quick, quick.

MILTOS SPEAKS GREEK

SIREN BLARES

Wow!

Bloody hell.

That was incredible.

I mean, it's scary, and a little
bit worrying,

Greek health and safety being what
it is, but...

...it was all OK.

With the ground blasted and the
upper layers of earth removed,

the miners can reach what they're
really after.

So, now, we start to see the coal.

Every day up to 65,000 tonnes of
coal are dug out of the ground
here.

Nine of these giant machines turn
the ground into fuel.

Oh, my God, look at it.

The size of it!

Great clanking dragon of a machine.

My God, it's moving! Look,
right now!

The machines are extraordinary.

But coal is an
environmental disaster.

Coal's by far the most polluting
source of electricity

and this type, lignite, is
particularly bad.

It's a Europe-wide issue.

Germany, the UK and Poland top a
list for the dirtiest coal-fired

power stations in the EU.

If we're to get serious about
tackling climate change,

emissions from coal power will have
to be phased out over the

next decade.

That looks unlikely in Greece.

The environmental costs of Greece's
coal industry are shocking.

The pollution from power stations

is thought to cause hundreds of
premature deaths every year.

The mine is also eating into
neighbouring areas,

emptying local villages and
displacing hundreds of families.

It's such a shame Greece's leaders
didn't use all that money they

borrowed, and often squandered, to
invest in solar power that could now

be providing electricity for
the country.

They're in a complete bind here now,

because they can't in many ways

afford to bring an end to
the mining.

They need the energy from it,

because they haven't got
many alternatives,

they haven't invested in
solar power,

and the jobs are really critical to
the country, as well.

This area of Greece has 72%
youth unemployment.

That is the highest in the whole
of Europe.

They can't afford to close the mine

and for all those men and women to
lose their jobs.

And so...

...the mining will continue.

Many have suggested there could be
something in the Greek character

that helped shape their
recent history.

It's risky to generalise, but I
will anyway.

Greeks are often proud
and strong-willed.

They're not mad about being told
what to do.

I just want to show you this.

This...

...is a spare seat belt buckle.

So, you can buy these across most
of Greece

and people put it into the seat belt
holder to stop the car bleeping at

them, telling them "buckle up".

This is where the safety precautions
of the motor industry collide

with the mentality, the pride, the
stubbornness of modern Greece.

And the stubbornness wins!

It's unbelievable.

A lot of Greeks still refuse to wear
a seat belt or a motorcycle helmet.

So, it's hardly surprising Greece
has some of the highest road-death

figures in Europe.

I tell you what gives you a sense of
how dangerous many Greek roads are,

it's the number of shrines that you
see alongside the road,

marking the spot where somebody's
had an accident and survived

and they've put a shrine there
because they're rather happy,

or their family have put a shrine
there because they've been killed.

My journey took me back to the Greek
coast and the Halkidiki Peninsula.

My route offered me a chance to
find out more about an aspect

of Greek life that's more important
than many outsiders realise.

We often think of countries like
Italy or Ireland

as being very religious,

but Greece's identity has also been
shaped by the Church.

The Greek Orthodox Church.

Surveys suggest more than 90%
of Greeks

consider themselves
Orthodox Christian.

Journalist Kostas Kallergis

offered to take me to the heart of
Greek Orthodoxy.

And this is our boat.

Well, it's not our boat, you know.

It's a ferry.

We're heading to a part of Greece
that is semi-autonomous,

cut off and runs most of its
own affairs.

These are the monasteries of
Mount Athos.

They're home to the oldest surviving
monastic communities in the world.

Look at that!

That actually is devotion.

Imagine what it takes to build that
up there.

The 20 ancient monasteries here have
stood for 1,000 years.

During much of that time, Greece was
ruled by the Ottomans,

the Muslim empire based in what's
now Turkey.

When the Greeks successfully battled
for their independence

in the 1800s, the Church was at the
forefront of the campaign.

Greek Orthodoxy, the religion, is
very, very central,

to the identity of our
modern Greece.

One of the first persons
who announced

the beginning of the independence
was a priest.

Erm, that's...

What, he would sort of rise up,

"My fellow Greeks, follow the cross,
follow the flag," that sort of idea?

Yeah.

You had to be both a Greek speaker

and a Christian Orthodox to be a
proper Greek.

So, are you saying, then, almost to
be Greek you need to be religious?

It's not necessarily a matter
of faith

but also in the way that the
Greek Church

is intervening into the daily life
and what is allowed or not allowed.

Intervening? In what way?

For example, if you want to be
cremated after death,

you can't do that in Greece.

- You can't be cremated?
- You can't.

Because the idea of burning a body
was not in the Christian religion

since its origins.

Throughout the history of
modern Greece,

the church has helped to shape
Greek identity.

The Orthodox Church still has a
pivotal role in Greek life.

Priests are still paid by
the government

and the Church is involved in
shaping the school curriculum.

Because I'm extremely observant,

Kostas, I've noticed there doesn't
seem to be any women.

Women are not allowed in
Mount Athos.

The easiest way to explain it is
that women,

together with other things, are one
more temptation,

so they shouldn't distract the monks

from devoting 100% of themselves
to God.

I see.

- It's the same with meat.
- No meat?
No meat.

No meat and no women?

Where the hell are we going?!

It's great, the... Can we
turn around?

Women haven't been allowed on Mount
Athos for 1,000 years.

The monks certainly live an
austere life.

But Kostas was taking me to one
monastery where the monks

have taken their beliefs to
an extreme.

To get there, we had to wait
for nightfall.

SIMON GROANS

It's half past four in the morning.

The monks I was heading to see have
become infamous.

The Orthodox Church has tried to
kick them out of their monastery,

which has now been sealed off.

There's a police checkpoint just a
short distance up the road

so we need to get through here into
the bushes quickly.

The rebel monks have set up a
smuggling route

to get supplies in and out.

They'd agreed to try and smuggle
us in.

So, now, we're inside Mount Athos.

And we're following a monk.

HE SPEAKS GREEK

The monks we're going to see have a
very difficult relationship

with the Orthodox
Church establishment.

Monks have been injured on
both sides

in what some have called pitched
battles between

the rebels and the establishment.

So, that's the reason for all
this subterfuge.

The dispute between the monks
and church

has left the monastery isolated.

As dawn broke we boarded the
monk's pick-up.

The monastery was another hour away
on a dirt road.

We're arriving at a
medieval settlement.

My goodness.

- Yassas.
- It would appear
we've arrived.

Yassas.

MONK CHUCKLES

The Esphigmenou monastery was built
1,000 years ago.

The 120 monks who live here today
are led by Father Methodius.

Quite recently, you've come into a
dispute, I think,

with the rest of the Greek
Orthodox Church.

Can you explain what's happened
and why?

The origins of this extraordinary
dispute go back decades.

The Greek Orthodox Church decided to
modernise and build bridges with

other branches of Christianity.

These monks view that as heresy.

Over the years the dispute
has escalated.

The Patriarch, or head of the
Orthodox Church,

has told the fathers here to leave
the monastery.

And he's appointed
replacement monks.

When they turned up,

Father Methodius claims the
situation turned violent.

It's hard to verify exactly
what happened.

The Orthodox Church says these monks
are squatters

and it continues to develop
friendly relations

with other Christian faiths.

Meanwhile, these monks are taking
their faith to an extreme.

The hardline stance of
the brotherhood

means they've had to learn to look
after themselves.

And what needs to be done now?

HE CHUCKLES

He's straight up and into
the tractor.

You don't mean in the bucket?

The father is...

The fathers of Esphigmenou

follow an extreme version of
Greek Orthodoxy,

but their attitude to faith and
country is one many Greeks

would recognise.

Most Greeks still have a real sense
of their country

as a Christian nation,

very different, they think, to its
Muslim neighbours to the east.

Indeed, many here see Greece

as a bastion of Christianity on the
edge of Europe.

I was headed towards the country's
border with Turkey

and an area called Western Thrace.

Greece is overwhelmingly Christian

but this part of the country
is different.

Amazing colour trees everywhere.

- Yes.
- Look at that. That's beautiful.

- We have all the colours.
- Yeah!

English teacher Boznak was showing
me around a largely forgotten corner

of Greece.

When I'm in another country and they
ask me,

"Where are you from?" and I say that
I'm from Greece,

they are surprised that there are
Muslims living in Greece.

We've been living here for years,
you know, and...

...most of the people don't know us.

What a stunning view.

- Yeah, this is the village.
- Wow.

This region is home to around
100,000 Muslims.

A community that has been here
for centuries.

They found themselves living
in Greece

when regional borders were redrawn
in the early 1900s.

MUEZZIN CALLS

Is that the call to prayer?
Yeah, for prayer.

Call to prayer coming from the
- mosque.
- Mm-hm.

For decades, Greece was locked in a
kind of cold war with the Turks

and the Greek authorities seemed to
regard Muslims here as an

enemy within.

Assalaamu Alaikum.

Military checkpoints meant movement
in and out of the region were

strictly controlled.

Many people in this area were even
denied Greek passports.

Assalaamu Alaikum.
Assalaamu Alaikum.

I'm getting a sense that there's
pleasure and mild amusement from

- people that we are here.
- Yes.

Because you felt ignored for perhaps
a long time?

Very long time.

The Christians that live in
Thessaloniki, which is two hours'

drive from here, they don't know
that we exist.

Even the Christians from Greece.

Only in the last 15 years, and under
pressure from the EU,

have barriers been removed and
things started to change.

TRADITIONAL DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

The cutest sight in the country.

People here are proud of their
distinct ethnic identity.

Many speak a Turkish dialect.

Yay!

But with barriers coming down,
this community itself has become

more open to the rest of Greece,
including its language.

Yassas. Assalaamu Alaikum.

There's a realisation here that to
be part of their country,

obviously, women from the village
need to speak Greek.

A Greek teacher, paid for by
the state,

has come into the community to
encourage integration.

Yay!

SIMON CLAPS

So, is this, for you,
really life-changing?

OK. Well, thank you very
much indeed.

There was, I think, a conscious
decision by the Greek state

to ignore the presence of these
people here,

and thankfully that's now
starting to change.

MUEZZIN CALLS

It was a reminder to me that modern
Greece is a young country.

And that it's still coming to
terms with some borders

that are less than 100 years old.

My journey across Greece was coming
to an end.

It's a country that went through an
incredibly fast modernisation,

partly fuelled by its membership of
the European Union.

But many of Greece's public
institutions and its

political culture didn't modernise
with the rest of the nation.

The results have been chaotic and
often catastrophic.

The last few years have been a
terrible shock to most Greeks

but they are trying and starting to
adapt to the situation,

and one of those ways they're doing
that is by returning to the land.

I was meeting up with
Pavlos Georgiadis.

- Morning, Simon.
- Hello.

Two years ago he returned from
living and working abroad

to take over his family's
olive grove.

And so, this is your olive farm.

But you travelled the world

and then at some point, presumably,
there was a flash of light in your

head and you realised, actually,
home is pretty amazing.

Home is amazing and home is in a
difficult situation.

We really need to sort of renovate
the home but we need to do it

with our own materials, not with
materials that we input.

And I felt that we have very
strong materials,

- this one is one of them!
- Yes!

- How old is this one?
- Close to 1,000
years old. These are like...

A 1,000-year-old olive tree?

Olive is such an amazing plant.

You need to really take care of it.

Pavlos is unusual.

It's thought 200,000 Greeks have

left the country since the
crisis hit.

It's one of the biggest brain
drains the Western world has seen in

modern times.

But Pavlos came back.

And he's only too well aware that
enthusiastic young entrepreneurs

are going to be vital to Greece if
the country is to recover.

Wow!

So, there's very few.

Well, you can see, very few leaves
are coming off.

- Can I have a go?
- Absolutely.

Here is a nice one for you.

- Whoa!
- Keep going, don't be afraid.

- Nice.
- Whoa!

I'm worried about ripping bits off.

Since coming home, he's turned the
family farm organic

and started producing his own brand
of ultra-high-quality olive oil.

Come on, I can see you there.

Off you come.

Oh, look, there's loads there,
look at that. Here we go, whoa!

Of course, yeah. They're making fun
of you.

That wasn't too bad!

Pavlos is investing his time,
his money

and his future in Greece, the
country he loves.

I'm hoping that what we do will be
used as an example to inspire

other people in Greece, especially
young people, that there are ways

out of this crisis. They're not
easy, but nothing is easy.

But there are ways.

And at the same time project an
image of Greece abroad that

Greece is not only about corruption,
about economic inefficiency,

about all this economic havoc
that we experienced.

There are some positive things that
are happening in our society.

There is more solidarity, there is
more connection to each other,

there is more communal effort.

It would be a mistake if our
generation keeps inactive

and only gives to the next
generation a bigger problem.

Perhaps a positive aspect of the
crisis is that it's exposed the

failings of the Greek state.

Pavlos and millions more like him

now want to build a new system to
replace the chaos of the old.

One without corruption and out of
the control of the old elites.

It's a rallying cry for the next
generation and for the future.

Ahh.

Greek beach.

Perfect place to end my journey.

Perfect place to be, full stop,
quite frankly.

I really hope the Greeks sort out
the current mess they're in.

Though I have been quite surprised
by how bad things are.

Been a bit shocked several times
on this journey, in fact.

I think as long as Greeks can come
together for their common good,

they can overcome and thrive, even,

during the difficult times that
might lie ahead.