Original subtitles

PETER (PRESENTS): In the first four series

of My Greek Odyssey,

we visited islands of the Saronic, the Ionian, the Dodecanese,

the western Cycladic and the northern Aegean.

In series five, we're seeing the southern and central Cycladic.

Islands you've never heard of, like Levitha, Anafi, Donousa,

and ones you know, well, like Santorini, and the big one, Crete.

Last time, I started exploring the island of Ios.

With so much to see and do, it's only natural

that I'm spending another few days here.

This episode sees me going from the sea to the summit,

as I visit ancient ruins from as far back as the Bronze Age,

as well as visiting a traditional family-owned cheesery

that's been in operation for several generations.

From Ios, I'm then headed to Sikinos,

an island that not many tourists know about.

Arriving in Ios, you will immediately be taken aback

by the pretty scenery and quaint towns.

The main port is a cliched Greek island experience,

with its fishing boats, tavernas, and a distant mountain-top church.

But it wasn't just the picturesque views

that I really appreciated about the place.

It was the people I met.

Two in particular left an enduring impression,

Peter and Giorgos.

Peter is a British expat that fell in love with Ios

and he kindly took me around to see his favourite beaches.

Then there was Giorgos, an ex Greek Special Forces officer

who has a passion for the island's history.

I was 19 when I actually came to Greece for the first time,

but I wasn't too sure what I was going to do.

I just wanted to escape from England.

Just a few more metres, eh, to the top?

Yeah, just a few more metres. Thank you very much, mate.

Awesome. Excellent. Excellent. Nice to share things with you.

Hey, you got a powerful, powerful... Special Forces.

(LAUGHTER) Nice. Very good.

My time with Giorgos

gave me just a taste of what Ios has to offer.

So, after originally saying our goodbyes,

I felt compelled to catch up again the following morning

to explore more of the island.

I had an interesting chat with Giorgos yesterday,

after our wonderful walk through Chora.

And I was talking about my times in the past,

when I came to Ios and the beaches,

and he said to me, "Pete, Ios is more than just beaches.

"I need to take you to the plains, the centre of the island,

"which was once the food bowl,

"and it was lost for a while and now they're bringing it back."

And I said, "OK, let's go."

So, I'm here today, and I'm meeting Giorgos

just up the road here in Upper Kambos.

Wow, Giorgos, you'd never think this was here.

I mean, I've been to Ios a few times

and I didn't realise there's this magnificent plane

right in the middle here.

It's beautiful, you know?

Looks amazing. Yeah, isn't it?

And this is Upper Kambos, right?

Yes. This is Upper Kambos.

We also have Lower Kambos near where the port is,

and this is where everything was being cultivated.

Right.

Whatever you see over here was cultivated.

People here worked a lot on the land because it was dry.

They used to cultivate olives, like you see, grapes, peas...

Barley. Barley.

They used to export it to make beer.

Right. OK.

They used to plant tobacco to make cigars.

Even...even cotton.

They were exporting it to England.

Who would have thought? Right.

So, I can see there's a lot of water running off

the hills here, you know?

Yes, indeed.

This was a very fertile part of the island

and they used to cultivate everything.

But during the '70s, they used to move towards tourism.

Yeah.

Like what you met when you came here.

But now the countryside starts to revive again,

and people are coming back and working on the land.

So, what are they using the land for now?

I can see some olive trees down there.

Yes, they're producing their own olives, every family.

They have grapes.

For wine? For wine.

We have a local winery, and of course, a lot of vegetables

that they give to the local restaurants.

So, they're supporting the tourism as well.

Exactly.

So, this is going back to what it was.

Back to the roots. Yeah, that's fantastic.

This is what we really want.

It's massive. I want to keep going.

This is a really nice walk. OK.

Many things to see. OK. Let's go.

If you visit any Greek island,

make sure you don't just limit yourself

to the beaches and seaside towns.

Often, the interior of these places

offer you a totally different experience

but equally rewarding.

The hinterland is where you get to see the real Greece,

where tourism hasn't altered the culture

or led to over development.

I didn't think we'd find this, Giorgos.

I'm so glad you brought me here,

because my good friend Nigel McGilchrist

told me all about this.

This is an old farm homestead

that's been around in Hellenistic times.

Yes. How old do you think it is?

It's a couple of thousand years old.

And the tradition still goes on.

They still cultivate on the same land

like 2,000 years ago.

It's still being used as a farm.

How impressive is it, that it's still here, you know?

And how impressive it is that many of the locals don't know it?

That's OK. That's not a bad thing. Yeah.

We're going to teach them.

Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's it.

It's true.

Throughout Greece, and the world for that matter,

there are places where ancient ruins exist

within the confines of cities or towns,

amongst farmlands or other places where modern life

continues in and around them.

In many cases,

locals pass by these relics of the past,

knowing little about them.

In my travels throughout Greece, this has been particularly apparent,

and in many cases,

thanks to the depth of our researchers,

I occasionally find myself enlightening the locals

with information lost in the bowels of our libraries.

So, we've just walked out of the plains

and we're coming now into the valleys.

Yeah. Correct.

And that's Chora over there, right?

Yes. That's Chora.

We're going to pass through an archaeological site.

We're going to start through the path from here, OK?

OK.

It's a pretty landscape with terraced hillsides

that have been farmed for centuries.

This time of the year, there's a golden hue,

but in the cooler, wet months, it turns lush green.

Wow.

Careful, huh? You know it well.

This is a very old path, as you can see.

People were coming and going to Chora

with all their stuff.

The last four or five years,

we've been working on these paths

to clean them and preserve them.

So, this is an ancient path, by the looks of it,

and probably the main highway until recently.

Until very recently, exactly. Correct.

Until about the early '70s,

this was one of the highways of the island.

Right.

And this is the path we are trying to preserve,

as much as possible, by cleaning it.

This ancient path has been trafficked by foot and hoof

for thousands of years.

It was once much higher,

but thanks to several millennia of weathering

and countless footsteps, it is eroded away.

Much like the way a river carves deep into a valley.

(SPEAKS GREEK)

Running through the fertile valley,

this path is part of the ancient infrastructure

that surrounded and supported one of the most

well-preserved Cycladic Bronze Age settlements,

known as Skarkos.

It's quite an extensive walkway

that would have taken a lot of manpower to build.

Over the years, the stone walls on either side

have been added to by farmers.

Giorgos pointed me in the direction of the ancient town

and left me to explore the 5,000-year-old ruins on my own.

So, Pete, this is as far as I'm going.

I show you the way.

Skarkos is just behind the hill.

Just up there.

You think you can make it on your own?

I think I can, mate. Thank you very much, buddy.

OK. Take care. OK, mate. See you later.

What a good guy.

A lifetime in the military

can make you disciplined and productive,

but it goes to a completely different level

for those few that make it all the way to the Special Forces.

Giorgos is typical of that.

What you've seen is a fit young local

that has a wealth of knowledge about his home.

What you haven't seen is that he has a family,

has built up a business,

marked the island's paths for walkers,

and published several books on military strategies.

As well as a comprehensive guide to Ios.

Now, that's what I call a high achiever.

(THEME MUSIC)

Well, we've made it to the ancient town of Skarkos.

Now, you can choose to get here

from PanoKambos

and walk through the ancient trails

with a really fit

Special Forces dude,

or come from the main town here in Chora

and it's like a ten-minute walk.

I know, what I'll do next time.

Skarkos is an excellent example of early Cycladic towns.

It's sort of mid third millennium BC.

Now, you won't find any of the artefacts

that have been pulled out of here.

They're all in the town of Chora in the museum,

but you'll get an excellent idea of the architecture.

5,000 years.

That's over 100 generations

that have continually farmed these hills and valleys,

year after year, decade after decade,

century after century,

these same people have walked by this ancient town

and left it alone.

I'd like to think it's out of respect

for their forebears.

It's like a monument to their history,

with only weather and time slowly eroding away

this once thriving settlement.

There is an abundance of evidence

showing that this was definitely an advanced civilisation.

Built between two rivers, a fertile valley

and a plain further over, as their bread basket.

And when you look at the town itself, you see streets.

You see squares.

You see close-knit living and shared facilities.

We're talking between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.

You don't need to be here long.

Come to Skarkos, 8:30 in the morning,

spend five or ten minutes, and just stand here,

and you're there.

You go back in time.

We all love to dream

about what the future could hold for us

and how our fantasies might become reality.

But I also love looking back at the past

and getting wrapped up in the vision of something so old and rare,

lost in wonder about what happened here

all those years ago.

I get quite envious of the simple life they lived,

not affected by the intensity of this technological age

we are caught up in.

But no doubt, they had many challenges too,

from fear of invaders and a limited seasonal water supply,

to the stresses of the hard physical labour

required to build and farm.

Life in ancient times had its own unique trials.

In the modern era, let alone centuries ago,

one of the greatest issues faced by any remote community

is maintaining a steady food supply.

In Greece, the sea provides much of what's consumed,

but there is also a strong reliance on agriculture.

Here on Ios, although the plains and valleys are comparatively small

for a Greek island, farming and animal husbandry are mainstays.

It's been this way for centuries,

and because of being relatively isolated,

they've developed strong culinary traditions,

with recipes and flavours that are unique to the island.

Naturally, with so many goats roaming around the countryside,

their meat and milk is used extensively,

and there's no better way to discover

the unique island flavours than to meet a family

that for generations has been making a special cheese

up in the hills.

So, Eleni, this is aged myzithra.

It's aged myzithra, yes.

Over a year. Maybe a little bit more.

We can't say too much, can we?

It's over a year, definitely over a year.

Now, myzithra is...

What is it called in English?

There is not an actual translation.

Right.

It's the fresh ricotta in Italian.

But ricotta's cow's milk, so there's no English term.

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.

So, they're mixing in goat's milk at the moment

with the aged mysithra.

What cheese are we actually making now?

Ios.

It only happens in Ios, this cheese.

It's the most traditional cheese of Ios.

It's called Skotyri.

Skotyri. Yes.

And this is a family, because Dimitri is your husband.

You've got your mother-in-law here.

It's a real family business, isn't it?

Yes, we don't have any employees.

The whole family helps.

Dimitri's sisters as well.

There's a very involved process to making this cheese.

During the handmixing, they add ground pepper,

as well as a wild herb that is picked by Dimitri

from the surrounding mountains.

Smells like oregano.

More like thyme, I would say.

More thyme, I would say. A bit like thyme.

Well, there you go. I'm not the best herb specialist.

Despite modern advances for the production of cheese,

these guys still rely on some traditional techniques,

such as hand mixing.

It's physically demanding work,

but they feel it's an important method

to ensure that they make the best product.

Once mixed, it's placed into cotton sacks

for the next phase.

And how long does it hang for?

For about four or five days.

It depends on the quantity.

And then it's finished. It's ready.

And then it's...No.

Still? You still...

There is much more. Yes.

Then we put it in a pot

and we add the very, very old graviera in pieces.

Oh, so you add a different cheese to it?

Yes.

So, that's what makes this a special cheese.

And this has been in your family for generations.

Yes. For many generations.

Yes.

It's amazing the amount of time and effort

that goes into making something that many of us take for granted.

But the proof is in the tasting.

So, all that there was left to do, was to try the finished product,

along with some of the other local produce.

Of course, the highlight was a wide selection

of the cheeses they make here.

It's the perfect afternoon snack.

Healthy, and most importantly, delicious,

if you don't eat too much.

So, how do you have it, just with a bit of...

Yes. With bread. With honey.

As an appetiser...

Mmm.

Mmm.

Very nice. Huh?

Very nice.

Here in Greece,

it's the perfect meze for wine or raki.

So, this has got the myzithra and graviera and the spices in it.

Yes. It's a party in your mouth.

Oh, it's beautiful with the honey.

Yamas. Yamas.

And a bit of wine. Can't beat it.

Only in Ios, nowhere else.

Only in Ios, yes.

Skotyri, only in Ios.

Generations of families continuing a tradition

that helps define Ios and its culinary individuality.

You can find similar enterprises across the Greek islands,

and it's not just with food production.

There are all sorts of culturally unique items

that are manufactured by small, family-owned operations.

These homegrown businesses play an important role

in creating the uniqueness of each and every island.

(THEME MUSIC)

It might be small,

but Ios has a huge amount of attractions

that you have to explore.

Many of which you can do free and without a guide.

So, I hired a car to check out more of the Island's interior.

It's a stunning part of the world to spend some time in,

yet there was almost no-one else to be seen.

Well, after a spectacular drive,

let's see if we can complement it with that Venetian fort up there.

It's a bit of a walk, but let's see how we go.

Despite having been to Ios several times,

I'd never been to the Castle of Paliokastro,

so, I didn't know what to expect.

If you've watched other episodes of the show,

you'll know that one of the highlights

that I look forward to,

is checking out the local castle or fortification.

Whether it's ancient, Byzantine, medieval or Ottoman.

No matter when in history it was built.

There's always a great story to be told.

Also, they're generally placed in high spots,

allowing the inhabitants to spot approaching enemies.

Although nine times out of ten,

the only buildings that get better real estate are the churches.

Visits to these landmarks

almost always involve a reasonable walk or hike,

where you can stop along the way

to enjoy the views and take photographs.

One bit of advice,

do some research before going to see any ruins.

Not only because very few of these places

have information boards where you can read about them,

but taking the time to get a thorough understanding

of the history, design, and purpose of these landmarks

adds another dimension to the experience.

After a short 15-minute walk,

you arrive to this coastal mountain,

and at the precipice is the castle of Paliokastro.

Built by the Venetians, the Pisani

and Christo families in the 1400s and 1500s.

Now, if you're coming up here for the castle,

I'm sorry to say, It's not worth it.

It's a dilapidated mess,

and there are plenty of examples of better castles

all around the Cycladic group.

But wow, the view is awesome.

And you can see why they built this castle here.

That's Naxos in the distance and Crete and Rhodes are that way.

So, it was protecting that trading route.

Now, I just want to sit here and take it in.

It's a good walk, great drive,

well worth coming, but the castle...

The castle may not be the grandest of buildings,

but the views you get make the hike well worth the effort.

And remember what I said about churches getting the best spots?

Have a look at this one.

Despite the remote location, it's still well kept.

So, there's no doubt plenty of people

come up here to light a candle.

Back behind the wheel

and I was off to see more of the island.

The road winds its way through the mountains,

carving a picturesque journey along the coast.

Around every corner is a different view,

providing you with endless perspectives

across the Cycladic.

It's a contrast to the bar-laden beach haven

that many would visualise when thinking of Ios.

Yes, there's a lively party scene here,

but the majority of the island is off the beaten track

and the total opposite.

However, you have to make the effort

to drag yourself off the deckchair or out of the taverna

and grab a car to do some exploring on your own.

For me, there was one particular location

that warranted a reasonable drive to get to.

It's a place that lovers of Homer's writings

have to visit,

if only to reminisce and ponder.

There are a lot of unanswered questions

about Homer.

He's such an interesting person.

First one is right up here.

Apparently, the Dutch envoy, Krienen,

in 1771, on discovering the tomb,

he opened it up

and saw the unmolested body of Homer

and it decomposed in front of him immediately.

Now, I don't know if believe that, but we'll log it.

You can make your own decision.

Legend has it that Homer ran into a couple of boys

that were coming back from a fishing expedition,

and they said to him,

"What we caught, we didn't bring back with us,

"and what we didn't catch, we still have."

And Homer couldn't solve the riddle.

He got depressed and apparently died here.

They were talking about lice.

I'm absolutely captivated by the Homeric writings.

What Homer did with 'The Odyssey' and 'The Iliad'

influenced classical and ancient writing for centuries.

But did he actually exist?

Many scholars say that he was more than one person.

Where did he live?

Where was he born?

What year was he born?

Some say between 1200 and 800.

Was he actually buried here?

And if he was, how sad is it that it's been left like this

because the guy's a legend.

I suggest if you don't know about Homer,

press pause and Google him right now, and then come back.

He was a great man and he deserves a lot more than this.

And if those questions...

If he wasn't buried here, I don't care.

I like the romantic story that he's here.

I like the fact that he's remembered.

My Odyssey has been and still continues to be,

a wonderful educational experience.

And none of it would have been a dream,

let alone a reality, if it wasn't for Homer.

As far as I'm concerned, he has copyright on the word Odyssey

and everything it conjures up in our minds.

Little is known of his life or what he looked like,

but his stories have lived on through the ages

and have stamped him as a legend of not just his time,

but throughout eternity.

And regardless of whether or not

this is where his remains were laid to rest,

it's now a pilgrimage for diehard fans of his work.

I couldn't think of a more fitting place

to end my time on Ios.

I walked away reminiscing about everything I'd seen

and done across the years of my own Odyssey,

knowing that ahead,

I still had many more adventures to play out.

(THEME MUSIC)

Formerly known as Innoi,

which means wine in Greek,

these terraced hills were once

filled with grapes for vineyards.

In popular mythology,

it was named after its founder,

Sikinos, grandson of Dionysus,

the god of wine.

The harbour is fairly shallow

and has long periods of wind, and so it's pretty inaccessible.

Even 'Mia Zoi' can't tie up to it.

But there's only 200 people here and I'm told

one thing you're guaranteed of, is hospitality.

Sikinos is about 8km west of Ios

and a similar distance east of Folegandros.

But despite its proximity to these better-known islands,

it has a tiny tourism market

and an even smaller permanent population.

Those that do come here and call this place home

generally gravitate to that main port area

and nearby beach.

It's a quaint setting, perfect for families

and those that like quiet holidays away from the crowds.

It's not the prettiest of harbours,

but has a certain charm that reminded me of the Greece

I knew 30 years or more ago.

My attention, however, was focussed higher up in the mountains.

I was keen to explore a couple of villages

that had been built right next to one another.

To tell me more about it, I found the mayor, Vasilis,

who turned out to be a larger-than-life character,

full of passion for his island.

Vasilis, I look at Sikinos

and I look at the rest of the islands.

You don't have beach bars.

You don't want beach bars here.

You make sure that everything remains traditional.

This all very traditional.

You haven't upgraded any... no development.

Is this you, or is this the people that want this?

All the people and me, we want this,

because we believe this island is different.

We have very big history, very beautiful culture,

traditional place, authentic, original.

I believe, and we believe is a place to come the visitor

and relaxing, find his self, his mind, his heart.

It's very, very different place.

We're not jealous of Santorini, not Mykonos.

It's other place.

Beautiful, but different for us.

You want to keep it the way it was hundred years ago?

Bravo. Of course. Yes.

Yes. This is our power.

Yeah. We are different from the other.

Small, beautiful, traditional and authentic.

So, you don't change for the tourist.

The tourist needs to change for you, basically.

They love it. They know what happened here.

And many tourists from other countries come here

and take a small house to live in winter, to relax.

We are friends with visitors from England, from Italy, France,

and they love local people and we're one team.

It's a beautiful place. They respect it.

The tourists come here and respect that.

It's choice of them to come here, for his heart and his life.

Wow.

Let's keep walking, eh, because I want to see the town.

Yes, of course. We go.

Vasilis, I look at this island.

So far, everywhere I look, it's clean.

You really look after it. I'm very, very impressed.

I mean, how long have you been the mayor?

I'm seven years now.

But for first minute we try to be very, very clean.

All blue and white, white and blue.

Vasilis, you were born here, raised here,

and you went and studied and came back.

You have a daughter, two years old.

Yes, yes. Virginia.

Do you think it's good for her

to grow up in Sikinos with only 200 people?

Do you think it would be good for her?

She's blessed. She's lucky.

She's very lucky. Of course.

I live here. I go for studies in Athens.

I be back here, but all the years I was in Athens,

I'm dreaming every night to return here,

to work here with my family.

All my family lives here. Yeah.

And it's very beautiful place, very beautiful.

Traditional, authentic, original.

I think my daughter and all the young people

that live here is very lucky.

Yeah. Why not?

Why would you wanna...

It's perfect. ..live anywhere else?

I think it's better life in place like Sikinos.

Yeah.

Vasilis is a pocket dynamo.

His positive energy and infectious character

are just what this island deserves.

With his enthusiasm and fervour at the helm,

no doubt Sikinos will prosper.

Hopefully not too much though, as he's keen to keep it peaceful.

You seem to know everybody here. You're saying Kalimera to everybody.

What's going on here?

Is all my friend. I know everybody here.

I live here.

Kalimera.

Everybody.

It's a small island.

It's a small island, yeah. We're a big family.

Yeah. Yeah. Kalimera, Dimitra.

Kalimera.

(SPEAKING GREEK)

Can we go to the bakery? Yes.

I want to try something that is Sikinos, only Sikinos, mate.

Melitini. Melitini?

Yes. Done.

It's a beautiful street.

Yeah.

Here is the bakery.

OK.

We'd better let our cameraman through.

Come on, mate. Oh, kalimera.

(SPEAKS GREEK)

So, what is Sikinos?

What are we going to have with Sikinos?

Sikinos, many things. But here we have melitini.

Let's try one. Of course.

Now what is in the melitini?

Beautiful sweet, but with local cheese, myzithra,

myzithra, sugar, and the mastika.

They featured, it's very, very beautiful, very tasty.

OK, I'm gonna try now.

(SPEAKS GREEK)

Very nice.

And of course, pasteli with corn of Sikinos.

Many islands, they have...

I seen the pasteli else where but not this.

This is beautiful. Yes, very beautiful.

Local cheese, sugar, and mastika.

Mastika, mate. I love it. It's beautiful.

Good taste. You are a legend, buddy.

Thank you very much. Thank you for everything.

You treat every tourist like me, like this, you know, everybody?

Everybody. The drama, I speak to everybody.

Someone told me you know

90% of the tourists who come to this island.

It's true. It's true.

Because the time they come, the boat,

I go, everybody say welcome to Sikinos.

I try to help everybody. We're big family here.

We'd better get to the port, mate, because there's a boat coming now.

Come on, let's go. Let's go.

Thank you. Yeah, bye!

(SPEAKS GREEK)

Sit at the coffeeshop opposite the main church for long enough

and you might be blessed to hear

the unique talents of the island's priest.

He's a musician and singer, and as it seems,

has just as much love for Sikinos as Vasilis does.

(PEOPLE SINGING IN GREEK)

This is a great example

of a tightly bonded island community,

where life exists in a time warp,

sheltered from many of the negative influences

of modern society.

It's a special place that has to be experienced firsthand

in order to fully appreciate it.

I've quickly become a fan of the island,

even though I haven't seen much, yet.

(PEOPLE SINGING IN GREEK)

(THEME MUSIC)

Despite being a relatively unknown tourism destination,

people from the four corners of the world find their way here,

albeit just a handful of them.

Usually, it's a result of hearing about Sikinos from a friend

or relative who somehow stumbled across the place.

Of those that visit,

no doubt many have the dream of getting a holiday home

or even resettling here.

I was lucky enough to meet a Swiss couple

that had done exactly that.

In fact, they bought their home without even seeing the place.

So, 33 years, you've had this house and 33 years been coming.

You bought the house in the same year

that you first came here.

That's amazing.

Yes.

And I came here

with my two small children.

Casas was not even two years old,

the other one, 3.5,

and my Filipino housekeeper.

And we came on the Giorgos Express.

I never forget that.

They didn't have a harbour.

It was wavy, and we had to transfer to a small fishing boat.

And I was terrified. I was terrified.

I was supposed to throw my children and I didn't trust them.

So, I watched them first catching the yayas.

The grandmothers.

And then I threw my bags, and they caught that.

And then I physically had to throw my children.

Wow.

And then I jumped myself. Yeah.

You jumped yourself. And we all survived.

And you hadn't seen your house yet.

I didn't even know where it was. Wow.

I went to the village to the other side, into the shop,

and tried to explain I have a house,

and suddenly a neighbour from here,

he made me understand, "Wait."

And I understood that.

I didn't speak Greek at the time.

And he came with two donkeys and brought me to the house.

So, you bought the house sight unseen

and you didn't even know where your house was.

No. Wow.

That's not very Swiss.

No, no, no. That's not very Swiss, is it?

The Swiss are normally very calculated, like

watches, aren't you?

You know, it's like this.

I don't want to speak for the Swiss.

(LAUGHTER)

But it's not very typical, I think, for most people.

Yeah.

It's not very typical for most people, no.

No.

And it was very spontaneous, and to this day,

it was probably the best decision I ever did.

And I've made a lot of money as a commodity trader,

and like Mischa said, that year, we had a bonus.

None of that money stayed eventually.

But the best decision and the best investment

I ever made was in this little house.

Wow.

Because it has become an anchor for the family

and a home also for our sons.

Talking to this lovely couple,

I began to understand how people like this feel

as though they've discovered their own piece of faraway paradise.

I sat and spoke to them both for hours.

But the one thing that brought it all together

was when they gave me their address so I could write to them.

It was as simple as this.

Mischa, Sikinos, Greece.

Pop those three words on an envelope and it'll find its way to them.

That says it all.

The truth is, the more people I met on the island,

the more I came to understand

that Sikinos was like a hidden treasure,

that very few people know about,

and those that do, keep it to themselves.

The next gentleman you're about to meet

spent much of his lifetime

travelling through the islands of Greece.

And when he left England years ago, he chose Sikinos to be his home.

So, I went fishing with him to learn more about what it was

that made this island so different

and attractive to foreigners like him.

I want to just try and get as much luck

as I can for us today.

Yeah, sure.

So, I'm going to talk to our angel,

I hear Zoi, alright?

Saint Zoi.

And I ask that, "I think I've been a good boy today.

"If you could allow us to maybe just get one or two fish

"so, that we can feed the crew tonight,

"Terry and I, we might have something to eat,

"we would appreciate it.

"Thank you very much." Not more than that.

We don't want more than that, do we?

Well, you know what I do?

I cross myself three times every church I pass to catch fish.

Alright. OK. When you pass the church.

That's what the locals do.

You're 47 years coming to Sikinos, mate.

You're a Greek now.

Yeah.

Listen, why Sikinos?

I mean, you are probably one guy

that's probably seen more Greek islands than me,

as a professional photographer

for National Geographic and all those guys.

Why Sikinos?

When I first came in 1971,

it was just so different

from any other place I knew in Greece.

There was no harbour.

There was no road.

There was no electricity the first year.

And you had to jump in a small boat like this and row ashore,

and there was a mule train waiting to take everything up.

Wow.

People bought furniture, beds.

Everything had to go up by mule.

Well, we still can't get our boat on the moorings there.

We can't get it on the dock.

It's still not easy, is it?

Yeah, OK, it's changed with the road and tourism,

but it hasn't changed that much beyond recognition,

like a lot of islands have.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

It's still got that private personality

of the locals that got a bit of hospitality.

There's only 200 people here or something, isn't there?

In the winter, there's hundred...

No, 212.

Yeah. Right.

And you know them all. Yeah.

I know them all.

When I first used to come here in the '70s,

I was studying photography.

I used to take lots of black and white photos of all the locals

and print them in the winter and bring them big 20x16 prints.

And they used to love...

Really be happy.

I read somewhere that in Athenian history,

they say that they would rather be put in jail in Athens

than go to Sikinos

because it's so remote and abandoned.

They used to send the communist prisoners...

Yes, of course.

..to prisons here.

And my understanding is the Delian and Athenian League,

the tribute that they gave from Sikinos

was the least amount of all the islands,

because it was the poor cousin of all the other islands.

And it didn't get pillaged by the pirates

because there was nowhere for them to land,

like Ios or other islands

where they used to steal and take people.

Here, they couldn't stop.

So, Terry, I think we've got to just keep fishing

a bit longer and stop talking

because I'm scaring the fish away, mate.

We've got to catch one sooner or later.

There's a cormorant there, which is a good sign.

Yeah.

Alright. I'm going to be quiet now.

No more interview.

Let's just see if we can catch a fish.

Come on, help us out, please. Please.

Take the rod. I'll take the rod.

Maybe that'll make a difference.

I was quickly discovering that remoteness and beauty

were key features as to why people chose to make places like Sikinos

their second or even first home.

But they were just initial, superficial things

that attracted people to these places.

At the end of the day,

it was the more human or personal elements

that were the deciding attributes.

It's the sense of community, of belonging to a place,

that galvanised their desire to make it their home.

(THEME MUSIC)

If you come to Greece and you want to walk

onto archaeological site or you want to investigate it

or you want to dig it or even film it,

I can tell you the Greeks are stricter

than anybody else in the world.

And it is so difficult for us

to come in and film these wonderful sites.

But there's a solid reason for it,

and the reason is that they want it to be done well.

They want these sites to be investigated, dug,

explored, exploited in the proper way.

And everything takes time in Greece

because there's just so many sites

like this one behind me, Episcopoi

here on the central western portion of the island.

This is a classic example of a very, very important structure.

We're talking about a second century mausoleum.

You can see that light-coloured building.

That was the original building.

And then around it, later on,

they've built in the 6th and 7th century,

a Christian Church that lasted to the 20th century.

There is a dome that's built up there on the 17th century.

So, we've got a building

that has slowly been renovated, changed use.

And that's a record in time

and it's a wonderful thing.

And right now, we're actually not allowed to go inside

because the archaeologists are working on it

and refurbishing it.

Hopefully by the time that this film comes out,

you'll be able to come out to Sikinos and see Episcopoi

it in all its beauty.

The wonderful thing about this is, it's very, very rare.

In the mausoleum, only in, I think it was 2018,

they found a lady, her bones,

in her noble dress, with jewellery, a mirror,

and a whole lot of other paraphernalia,

which showed that this mausoleum was for one lady,

even though there was another couple of crypts in there,

another couple of tombs.

They don't know where she came from,

why she was in that mausoleum, and that's what's important here.

It may take decades to find out, but these guys are working on it.

There's six or seven archaeologists in there.

There is an architect.

There's all the specialists in there.

And when you come here and you realise that,

you get an understanding of how important it is

that we give these Greeks the time

to be able to exploit what we have here.

Sites like this are incredibly fragile

and come with important lessons in history and culture.

They're remarkable things to see, even if you can't walk inside.

If ancient landmarks aren't your cup of tea,

then maybe my next stop is.

I've filmed several wineries through out this Odyssey

but none like the one we're about to see.

The seaside amphitheatre location makes this the most

picturesque vineyard I've ever been to.

The winery also doubles as a restaurant

and it's become a well-known destination

at sunset.

It's owned by Giorgos,

who walked away from his life as a builder

to pursue his dream of being a winemaker.

His story resonates closely with mine.

As I enter the next phase of my life,

I want to pursue other projects and challenges,

and who knows, maybe I'll end up growing grapes

on my home island of Kythira.

(SPEAKS GREEK)

(SPEAKS GREEK)

The life cycle of grapevines,

or more so the changes they go through

from season to season

is a living metaphor of Giorgos' own existence.

He's been reborn, given a new lease of life,

after taking the leap of faith to walk away from building.

The fruits of his labour is the charmed life

he and his family now enjoy and share with tourists.

(SPEAKS GREEK)

(SPEAKS GREEK)

To build your dream takes hard work,

and Giorgos finds motivation and inspiration

in those that have done similar,

be it here in Greece or other places

where his countrymen have settled and led successful lives.

If what I see today is anything to go by,

Giorgos has achieved something to be admired.

Yet every day, he works harder to make it even better,

if not for himself and his family, then for others to experience.

(SPEAKS GREEK)

(SPEAKS GREEK)

The recurring theme of my time on Sikinos

is that this is a place where people come

for a lifestyle change.

To escape the trappings

and stresses of the modern-day world and slow down.

It's something I can totally relate to.

The next episode sees me finishing my time on Sikinos

with a visit to one of the most remarkable monasteries

I've ever seen,

before upping anchor and heading west to Folegandros.

It's my final stop in this series of the Odyssey

and the perfect way to bring it to an end.

Just like this view

is the ideal finish to an awesome day.

And you know what?

It's right up there

with the famed sunsets of Santorini.

Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv