All language subtitles for Joanna Lumleys Postcards From My Travels - 01x04 - Greek Islands.-JIVE, -WebDL.English.edit.Addic7ed.com

'Travelling can seem pretty daunting.

You're bombarded with the new...'

That's extraordinary!

'.. sights, sounds, language, smells,

tastes, food, drink, colour and commotion,

or tranquillity and peace.

And people. Meeting new faces
and learning new customs.

And afterwards, you can't quite believe,

"Yes, I did do that! I did see that."'

It's not like The Archers,
do you know what I mean?

'Happily, I've got all sorts
of records of my adventures.

So I can choose my favourite moments

and package them up into
postcards, albeit Special Delivery.'

Nowadays we take it for granted
that, when ever you want to,

you can jump on a plane
and follow the sun.

But if you have reached a certain
stage of... fabulousness,

like me, you can remember
back to the '50s and '60s,

when foreign travel was very exotic,
even jumping on a plane to Spain.

As a teenage model in the Swinging '60s,

I visited and worked in most
of the countries in Europe.

But I'd never been to Greece.
And I longed to go there,

to visit all those islands dappled
around in a glittering blue sea.

But of course, to Greek people,

the sea is much more than
just a glittering surround.

It is their source of
food, trade, of transport.

The locals in Greece jump on
ferries and boats, as we do buses.

But actually, why take a bus
when you can take a helicopter?

'The island of Spetses is
half a day by sea from Athens.

One of Greece's famous
shipping magnates has flown us,

at his expense, to his luxury yacht,

so that I may talk to him about what it is

to be a Greek islander and seafarer.'

- Kalimera.
- Joanna Lumley. Captain Sarkos.

Captain Sarkos, how lovely to meet you.

Lovely to see you too.
Happy to have you onboard.

'Captain Sarkos is a self-made
man, with the sea in his blood.'

'His family started as maritime
traders and over the centuries,

they've conquered the
world's shipping routes.'

'The success of Captain Sarkos'
family, and others like him,

was born from necessity.

Centuries ago, island life was poor

and was difficult to eke out a living.

So they took to the sea
to seek their fortunes.

Can't do the Poros Canal.

Well, where we are going.
We are gonna be surprised.

'The Poros Canal is a
narrow stretch of water

which passes the tiny island of Poros.

Which, coincidentally, is where my
affection for Greece began 40 years ago.'

I was sharing a flat in London

and we decided to save up our money
and come to Greece. This was 1966.

And I'd been told to go to an
island, which I thought was Poros.

We bought our tickets and we came.
And we were brought by ferry

to this enchanting little town.

And we found two rooms in
villager's houses and stayed there.

And it was only later,
actually during the trip,

when somebody said, "Why
did you come to Poros?"

I said I think that's where we
were told to go, Poros and Naxos.

And they said, "Not Poros,
it's Paros and Naxos."

Paros, another big
island much further out.

And you came to Poros.

But by that time, we'd fallen in love.

We had the best holiday you can imagine.

And that is where my love
affair with Greece started.

It was just enchanting.

When I was at boarding school,

a lot of our dormitories were named
after letters in the Greek alphabet.

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta,
Piu, Mu, Phi, Sigma.

But unfortunately I never
learned to speak Greek.

I would have loved it.

So when I went there I learnt
to say, "Parakalo", please.

"Efcharisto", thank you.

I learnt to say,
"Kalispera" and, "Kalimera",

good evening and and good morning.
But that's about as far as I got.

There was one language which I
couldn't even say anything in.

It was fabulously difficult. I
had a go but what a failure!

'My guide, Petros, is taking me
to the isolated corner of Evia,

the second largest island in Greece.

Here, the hills have echoed to the
sound of an astonishing language.

We arrive at the village of Antia.'

- Up here?
- I think so.

~

~

~

We can sit here.

Can she understand?

I was only making it up. I don't know.

~

She says that, "She
doesn't say something."

I didn't say anything.

She's found me out. I was just whistling.

I'm sorry. I still sound
like The Clangers.

I never made myself heard. I
did have a crack at it though.

The sound is actually like
people who can whistle for taxis,

which I can't do because
my whistling is...

I've been trying to practice...

Jennifer Saunders can do it, I can't.

I can't make a sound. I just dribble.

Do our ladies know where the
tradition of whistling came from?

~

'I'm just glad it wasn't my job.'

It would be as if I was
dumb, being up here.

~

One for the dogs. Look, the dogs.
We've suddenly got a mass of dogs.

~

There's a goat on the roof over there.

They've called the goats, who are
climbing over the roofs toward us.

It's extraordinary. The nearest
thing to Dr Doolittle I've seen.

They just whistle and
the goats answer back.

Then you shout at them and
they've got it. Absolutely.

~

This is to ward off the evil eye.

It's my Matiasma. The Egyptians used it.

It appears in the Jewish tradition.

The Old Testament and the Koran.

But it all originated in ancient Greece.

They believe that it
fended off bad thoughts.

Babies are very susceptible,
women are very susceptible.

So I love and treasure this.

When I went to Kos, however, I
learnt about a Greek islander

who dismissed all this
superstitious rubbish.

And his name was Hippocrates.

'Kos was the centre of
healing in ancient Greece.

It was the home of Hippocrates.
The father of modern medicine.'

He believed in clinical observation,

logical analysis and the
healing power of nature.

He believed in putting the patient
at the centre of the diagnosis.

He believed in diet, he believed
in a healthy environment.

And above all, he managed to tell people that
it wasn't their fault that they were ill.

It wasn't a punishment from the gods.

It was simply because the body was sick.

So he managed to separate
completely, religion and medicine,

for the first time ever.

'They say Hippocrates, though mortal,

is descended from the god
of healing -- Asclepius.

Manolis, a local historian, is
taking me to the Asklepieion,

a sort of health spa
and healing sanctuary.

There were hundreds of
Asklepieions in ancient Greece.

But now, looking at these abandoned ruins,

it's quite difficult to imagine
them buzzing with life.'

There should be more than one terraces.

So in most cases, there would be three.

- Is this the first terrace here?
- Yes, this is the first terrace,

which was devoted to the body.

The second one would
be devoted to the soul.

And the third one to the spirit.

Body, soul, spirit.

- And here, we would have the
rooms for the patients. - Mm-hm.

All surrounding the first terrace.

- So like a great, sort of,
hospital laid out here. - Yes.

- Exactly. Exactly. - Also, they've
chosen the most beautiful position.

It was a prerequisite to
have a unique location.

- And presumably a prerequisite
to have water? - Yes.

Exactly.

Very interesting statue is up at the top.

- It looks like Pan or something?
- Exactly.

The small God of the woods.
Half a goat, half a human.

He was like the Green Man, we
have the Green Man in England,

who's very like pan.
He lived in the woods.

He had no, sort of,
morals, as we have them.

- Everything was fine. - All
right. - All animals were good,

this was good, you take that, it is
yours, it doesn't matter, I have it.

I'll leave you, I love you, I leave you.

- He had no morals.
- Something like the '70s?

Something like the '70's, actually,

with panpipes and letting the hair go.

'Above the hospitals stood the temples,

so that patients could worship their
gods and show their gratitude.

But the ancient Greeks realised they
couldn't be healed through worship alone.

So through incredible foresight,

they also built a medical school
inside the grounds of the temple

to teach the science of Hippocrates.'

Here, it would be something like a podium.

The teacher would be here,
teaching them the lesson.

Hippocrates went so far
that, until the 19th century,

his books were still
being studied worldwide.

So here, we are at the third terrace.

'Just like today, sadly not
all illnesses could be healed.

So on the third terrace was a temple

where those about to die could give
their soul and spirit to the gods.'

- Yes.
- And what did it look like?

It looked like something that
you wouldn't want to miss

- and something that would make you
feel so humble, so small... - Yeah.

.. that by giving your soul to the God,

you were sure that you would be healed.

- This was majestic, enormous.
- Exactly.

- Dominating this hillside.
- Exactly.

More postcards are on their way,

from frisky sheep to generous
Greeks bearing gifts.

And James Bond turns up again.

He follows me round the world, I swear it.

Any chance to visit a volcano
is not to be turned down.

So when I had this opportunity
to walk in the crater,

of a now extinct volcano, I
was just thrilled to bits.

They said, "You'll burn your feet", and
I thought, "Will it be as hot as that?"

They didn't mean burning from heat,
they meant burning from sulphur.

It stank.

'In Greek mythology, Poseidon is
the tempestuous god of the sea,

who was seen to throw a huge
rock at an escaping Titan.

As it crashed into the water,

that rock became the
volcanic island of Nisyros.

And every time the volcano erupts,

people believe it is the pinned
down Titan trying to escape.

The last eruption was in 1888.'

'The volcano, with its five craters,

covers almost half the surface
area of the entire island.

Stephanos is the biggest
of the five craters.'

The smell! It's sort of
sulphurous but it's got even...

- .. another smell on the
back of it as well. - Yes.

And what is really unique,
you notice that he is alive.

He is changing all the time,
depending on the weather,

depending on the wind, if it
is rain. It is never the same.

And the fumaroles, how
close to them can we get?

Not really close because as close
as we get, the crust is thinner.

- Yeah. - Because the steam
that comes out from the fumaroles

is up to 100 degrees Celsius.

Look at these fantastic colours.
There is sour yellow and baked.

- This must have been from, what?
Rain and then drying out? - Exactly.

- If you listen, you can
actually hear it bubbling. - Yes.

This is not good to touch?

Not good to touch. One of
the nicknames is Akolos.

- Akolos? Kolos is...
- Bum. Exactly.

Akolos? Bumless.

So if you sit, you're going to burn.

- Phe-e-e-w.
- It's acid.

They don't suddenly just
go blip, like that, do they?

- Sometimes. - Oh.
Well. OK. - Sometimes.

- That's why you should never go...
- I'm honestly not gonna do that.

I think I'll just not do that.

This feels almost as if we
are on another planet here.

Yeah. Some say it resembles the moon.

How the moon would be looking like.

That's why Moonraker was shot here.

- Moonraker? - Yes.
- The Bond film? - Yes.

- Roger Moore?
- Exactly. Some shots of the moon,

they were just exactly
where we are right now.

'I can't actually remember
Roger rocking up on the moon,

but, you know, it's a good story.'

Of course, you could spend a lifetime island
hopping in Greece trying to visit them all.

But there was one I particularly
wanted to set my feet on.

Because it was so important in
ancient Greece and in modern times.

Far behind me is mainland
Greece and Athens.

Far in front of me is Libya.

But this island that we
are coming into is Crete,

the largest of all the Greek islands.

This is its capital, Heraklion.

Now, it was incredibly important,
both to the ancient Greeks

and the Minoans and all
the people before that,

because of its position.

It was sitting bang in
the middle of the ocean.

Everybody who traded had to come past.

It's fabulously beautiful.

'In 1941, Hitler, realising the
importance of Crete's position,

ordered its invasion.

It was the first time in the war,

that the Nazis encountered mass resistance

from the local population.'

'Eleni Fanariotou, my translator,
has brought me to this small town

which was at the centre
of the Cretan resistance,

during the German occupation.'

Look at this.

"Order by the German General
Commander of the garrison of Crete.

Because the town of Anogia is the centre
of the English intelligence on Crete...

.. we order it's complete destruction

and the execution of every
male person of Anogia,

who would happen to be within
the village, and around it,

within a distance of one kilometre."

'Elani took me to meet Nikolas, who
narrowly escaped execution by the Nazis.'

~

- Nikolas.
- Ah, Nikolas.

How long has he been a cobbler?

~

So he was making shoes during the war.

He must have seen the terrible
reprisals on this village.

I read that it was razed to the ground?

~

Did you lose friends?

Personal, close friends from this
village, during the reprisals?

~

'Many villagers fled to the
mountains and survived,

as did the Cretan resistance,

with the help of the local shepherds,

who made their homes in hillside caves.

The descendants of the
shepherds live there still.'

~

- Ah, thank you.
- ~

'This way of life hasn't
changed much for centuries.

Cretan resistance fighters would have had
to live much like these shepherds do today,

on a basic diet of meat and cheese.'

~

- Can I feel?
- Yes, yes.

So it actually feels, at
the moment, just like milk.

But presumably, with
this heat underneath it,

it's kind of thickening up like custard.

I see. Women's task. Men
sitting watching meat

and women actually stirring, I see.

'When the fighters weren't
disrupting the Germans,

they would have had to chip in
with the work in the fields.'

Will you forgive me for not
having a go at milking?

Because the thing is, is that if
it was one sheep, very tame sheep,

and it was very calm and there
was nothing much happening,

I could have a go at it and get it
badly wrong, cos it's quite a skill.

With a hairy avalanche waiting,

you can sense there's
quite an expectation here

that it's gonna be done and done
properly. And I'd mess it up.

Know what I mean?

Ooh, a lovely jump there.

We just can't tell which ones are
gonna jump and which ones aren't.

You see one and think that's a jumper and
then you think this one isn't. But it is!

Fantastic.

And this is a little sheep's bell,

which we found lodged in
one of those stone walls,

near where the shepherds
were. Isn't that lovely?

So, having met the sheep
who provided the milk,

who made the cheese,
which made Greece famous,

it only seems right that we should sample
a little bit more of Cretan hospitality.

A little bit of drinking. No plate
smashing, that's terribly out now.

And I'm afraid, a bit of
cringe-making dancing.

'The favourite drink in Greece is raki.

They drink ouzo and retsina
but raki is the local tipple.

Stelios Petrakis has the
biggest raki making still,

allowed for personal
consumption in the region.'

~

Thank you. Yassas.

Smells beautiful.

Wonderful.

It's wonderful!

I can't think how to say wonderful.

~

You don't get hangovers
from things like this

because there's nothing
added. It's completely pure.

Once the first woody alcohol is taken off,

you've just got this
extraordinarily clean, pure stuff.

So it just takes two hours
to make this dancing mixture.

It's unbelievable. And quite
a large quantity of it too.

I'll just taste it again
to make sure, you know...

Do you know, it tastes
better with every sip.

You become slightly less articulate

but more appreciative with every sip.

'Several times a year, family
and friends get together

for prolonged raki making sessions.

Tastings are an excuse for a huge feast.

The traditional music played
in part on a Greek lyre,

is accompanied by equally
traditional Greek dancing.

Under the influence of the raki
and against my better judgement,

I'm persuaded by Stelios'
friends to take part.'

This is why utter hell is
being made to do dancing

without any tuition.

Then pretending that
it's completely normal.

~

I've got a lunatic on my right,
who thinks he's leading the dance.

Cheese, salad, raki, the food of the gods.

That's my final postcard
from my Greek odyssey.

But I'll be back soon with more.