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00:30Throughout most of my lifetime, an iron curtain has divided Eastern Europe from the West,
00:56preventing me from really getting to know it.
00:58I've flown over it, appeared at bits of it, but I've never really travelled through it.
01:04Now the iron curtain has lifted, I'm going to make up for lost time and explore the other
01:08half of my continent, Europe.
01:16Here in the Slovenian Alps, I'm turning my back on Western Europe and heading east to
01:21a world which is changing at a remarkable speed.
01:25Since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the number of countries in Eastern Europe has
01:29doubled.
01:30Ten have already become members of the European Union, and even countries like Turkey are
01:34keen to join them.
01:37What lies ahead is, for me, a voyage of discovery.
01:40An exploration of the people, the places, the mood and the spirit that is transforming
01:46old lands into a new Europe.
02:16As we meander through the tranquil countryside of Slovenia, it's hard to believe that this
02:46was the country whose walkout from the Communist Conference in 1990 began the break-up of Yugoslavia,
02:52one of the cornerstones of post-war Europe, and put six new European countries on the
02:57map.
03:03I'll be travelling through them, to Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, and beyond them, to the
03:09mysterious land of Albania.
03:15My first port of call is Slovenia's southern neighbour, Croatia, whose beautiful coastline
03:20stretches languorously along the Adriatic.
03:24Like many of the countries of New Europe, Croatia has a very old history.
03:29Here in the port of Split, off a square built at the time of Napoleon, Goran Golovko teaches
03:34children about the city's most famous son, the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
03:44Goran's way of bringing history to life is to portray the Romans as just one of the many
03:48peoples who've occupied Croatia over the years, very much like present-day tour groups that
03:54flock here every summer.
04:04Of all the ex-Yugoslav countries, Croatia is the one that seems most comfortable with
04:09international attention.
04:19You could say the idea of East and West Europe began here.
04:23It was Diocletian who took the momentous decision to divide the Roman Empire in two.
04:28He ruled the East from a mighty palace here in Split, which is still inhabited.
04:35The palace is still alive, people still live within it, and we can see architectural changes
04:41from medieval time onwards.
04:45Has there been any attempt by municipal authorities to sort of get rid of all the parasitic buildings
04:51on this beautiful thing?
04:52Because, I mean, many people would think that was a bit of architectural desecration.
04:57Well, not anymore.
04:58This is also part of traditional culture.
05:00This is how Split was developed.
05:05That washing looks very old indeed.
05:07Yes, it's Roman, actually.
05:09We didn't advertise it, but it's still there.
05:15So now we are at Peristil, which is the main square of the palace, where the emperor was
05:22appearing to his subjects, and we see these great colonnades of Corinthian-style pillars.
05:29And this extraordinary feeling, you've got modern buildings with sort of aluminium windows.
05:34Yes, this is my bank over there.
05:36That's your bank?
05:37Indeed.
05:38Where I shake in front of my bank manager.
05:42I don't think I've been anywhere quite like this, where you get the feeling of an empire
05:46which has just crumbled and been absorbed again by somebody else, you know, and been adapted.
05:52I spy a piece of more recent Croatian history, the name of the local football club.
05:57It's a famous name.
05:59Football lovers, yes.
06:00Split symbols.
06:02If you're born into being a Hajduk fan, then you're a Hajduk fan for the rest of your life.
06:07The word Hajduk means a bandit, but in the good sense of bandit as patriot, fighting
06:12for his country against Venetians and Ottoman Turks.
06:16Goran takes me to meet Zdravko, a modern Croatian patriot, who also happens to run one of the
06:21best restaurants in town.
06:23Here you are.
06:24I took a lot.
06:25Hello.
06:26Yeah, that's very good.
06:28Are you happy the way it's happening now with the tourists here?
06:31Of course, absolutely.
06:32You see, I always say to everybody, I'm very, very happy.
06:35Of course, I'm very critical, but imagine living for all of the communism, creation
06:42of the free Croatia, modern Croatian state for the first time in modern history, winning
06:47the war in three times a year, at the age of 60.
06:50You know, it's creation of the state alive, in direct.
06:55It's a fantastic feeling.
06:56Of course, it's very emotional.
06:58Yeah.
06:59On the other side, I'm, of course, critical.
07:01Why not?
07:02Because, you know, at the very beginning, I was very, very mad, you know, because my
07:05creation was like a baby in cradle.
07:07Now you can kick it in the, you know.
07:09Now you can owe it.
07:11Take it apart a bit.
07:13In 1980, the war, I wouldn't do that now.
07:15Now I'm very critical.
07:16It sounds as though you were a bit unhappy in the communists.
07:18Well, you know, communism, I didn't like communism because it was very limiting for
07:25work, you know what I mean.
07:28You see, people felt much more secure in Exegoslavia because, you know, you get the job and you
07:34keep it for life, you know what I mean.
07:36You get what you get, but, you see, they didn't have so many possibilities to work like this
07:43one, like I'm working now, you see.
07:46What sort of things define Croatia now?
07:49You know, it's sort of...
07:52It is, yes.
07:53You see, when we look here now, this is the first time in history that we have our modern
07:58state.
07:59You see, for example, in Exegoslavia, I could not express my patriotism, I would say, as
08:05freely as I do now, you know.
08:07It has to be some kind of, within the Yugoslavia, whatever, you know.
08:11But now, you see, I am Croatian.
08:14It's a fantastic feeling when you can say, you know, openly, without any fear, without
08:19any consequences.
08:20That's the point.
08:23One of the most seductive attractions of Croatia are her islands.
08:27I take the ferry to Hvar, which comes highly recommended.
08:31What can we expect to see there?
08:33A paradise.
08:34A paradise?
08:35Oh, we're not allowed to go to paradises.
08:37You are.
08:38Yeah?
08:39You are.
08:40Well, what's it...
08:41In what way?
08:42Just the look at the...
08:43I mean, the scent, the flowers of the island, the colours, you should love it.
08:47I'm sure you will love it.
08:48Everyone does, so it's like...
08:58Hvar beckons you before you even reach it, with a heady scent of lavender, oregano,
09:03and the broom that seems to cover the island.
09:06Attractive as this might be to the tourists, it hasn't done much for the locals,
09:10who have, over the years, left in droves to find work abroad.
09:19One man who says he'll never leave is Igor Zivanovic.
09:23Raconteur, bon viveur and all-round character,
09:26Igor has his own bar and restaurant in a back street of Stary Grad.
09:30Ah.
09:31This is the family house, because my family is here 500 years.
09:35Mm.
09:36Then I'm here.
09:38It's in history.
09:39Yes.
09:40History.
09:43Do you know about all that slow food that they write about in Italy?
09:46Sometimes.
09:48I know.
09:49Sometimes, when we are friends on the bar, and we are drinking wine,
09:53we are talking about the wine, about, I don't know,
09:56about my grandmother, about your grandmother,
09:58about your time, when have you been 16 or 17.
10:03And the stupid tourist, but really stupid, not a friend,
10:06he wants to eat something.
10:08I said, you have 20 kuna, you can go to fast food.
10:11I have no time.
10:12I see, so if you want a quick meal, don't come in here.
10:15You are the Basil Fawlty of slow food.
10:17I enjoy to cook, to make the joke.
10:21What can I do for you now?
10:23You can give me the glass of wine.
10:25Wine from the island of Hvar, please.
10:27OK, OK.
10:28Put it there on the bar, my glass is on the left, yours on the right.
10:31May take a few hours, but I'll do my best.
10:33Yeah.
10:43Igor, that's all right?
10:44And where is your glass?
10:45Well, I've got, you know, a bottle and a glass.
10:47You're the most important person at the moment.
10:49I'm taking it slowly today.
10:51I have to work.
10:52According to your philosophy, there is no need to hurry.
10:55There you are.
10:57One for you, one for me.
10:58Is this the right one? OK, I'll go and get one for me.
11:00This is the land one from the island here.
11:02All right.
11:03On the bar.
11:05Yes, lovely.
11:06Her meal, peppery lamb stew and fresh grilled sardines,
11:09is delicious, and I find myself helplessly drawn
11:12into Igor's world, which includes opinions on everything,
11:16from Marshal Tito to McDonald's.
11:18I think if you're going to travel, you should...
11:20My rules.
11:21You should obey and accept the terms...
11:23If I make you McDonald's, I will hang.
11:25Hmm.
11:26You'd hang...
11:28Do you understand?
11:29We need a little...
11:30The first...
11:31The first McDonald's Marshal I met.
11:33Solid honesty.
11:34There are clocks all over.
11:36They're all at 304.
11:38Look, there's some more.
11:40They're all at 304.
11:41304.
11:42304.
11:43This is the story, my dear.
11:45In that time, it's my ex-president,
11:48Josip Broz Tito, is dying.
11:50Ah.
11:51Tito's...
11:52Tito.
11:53Died at 304.
11:54304.
11:55Maybe not, but so was on TV.
11:58They've said, now he's dying.
12:00Super.
12:01And then I put all the clocks on 304.
12:03Yeah.
12:04And he was the biggest hedonist...
12:07Yeah.
12:08...in the history of the modern civilization.
12:11He was wonderful.
12:12After our lunch, Igor takes me out of the town
12:15to see the farms, deserted by those
12:18who couldn't make these stony fields pay.
12:22They are from 16th century.
12:2416th, 17th century.
12:25This is from 17th century.
12:26What, this?
12:27Yes, this one.
12:28Because you have no...
12:29In the middle, you have no this triangle.
12:31How do you say it?
12:32Right, headstone.
12:33Headstone.
12:34Bravo, bravo, bravo.
12:35You know everything about our architecture.
12:37Yeah, I've cracked it at last.
12:39Yeah.
12:40That's something I know about.
12:44Would you be happy to stay here in this paradise
12:46for the rest of your life?
12:48What have you said?
12:49You have said paradise.
12:50Yeah.
12:51Then the question is stupid, I'm sorry.
12:53Because if this is paradise,
12:56then you mustn't mean,
12:58mustn't make the question.
12:59You've come to the end of your life.
13:01Normally.
13:02Well, somebody called it paradise.
13:04You have said paradise.
13:05A girl I met on the boat said paradise.
13:06This is not my war.
13:09You are for the short time here,
13:10and I am sure that you will come back.
13:15I feel I've just got out in time.
13:17There was something dangerously tempting about Tavar
13:19that made me want to stop the journey right there.
13:22But the local fishermen make sure
13:24my ride across the water to Bosnia
13:26is as painless as possible.
13:31Fantastic.
13:35Lanchowiz.
13:36Oh, yeah.
13:37OK.
13:43I mean, a half pint of white wine,
13:44freshly caught lanchowiz,
13:46and oil made by the captains.
13:49I mean, this is the way to get around the world.
13:53I'm afraid someone has to do it.
14:00It's a short-lived celebration.
14:02Beyond the mountains lies Bosnia Herzegovina,
14:04where things are a lot more complicated.
14:12What I least expected to find in a country
14:14which probably suffered more from the breakup of Yugoslavia
14:17than any other
14:19was a quiet line of pilgrims from all over the world
14:22wending their way up a mountainside
14:24to a place where, 26 years ago,
14:27a group of local teenagers
14:29met and spoke with the Virgin Mary.
14:34MUSIC PLAYS
15:04What those children saw
15:06has transformed the village of Međugorje
15:08into a boom town,
15:10which has already attracted 25 million visitors.
15:14Despite the fact that the Pope has refused
15:16to endorse the visions, or apparitions,
15:18as they call them here,
15:20Međugorje is now the third most popular
15:22Catholic site in Europe.
15:25Mirjana Dragicevic
15:27is one of the children who saw the Virgin,
15:29and still does.
15:31She's in her forties now,
15:33married to a builder,
15:35and living to all intents and purposes
15:37a quiet suburban life.
15:39She told me what happened on the mountains.
15:41She said,
15:43''I saw the Virgin,
15:45and I saw the Virgin,
15:47and I saw the Virgin,
15:49and I saw the Virgin,
15:51and I saw the Virgin,
15:53and I saw the Virgin.
15:55What happened on the mountain when she was 15?
15:57At first day, we just run away.
15:59We didn't go close to her.
16:01Were you frightened?
16:03Yes. Yes, because I didn't know what was happening to me.
16:05Nobody explained to me that this can happen.
16:07Because I was religious life in communism.
16:09Was being in the homes.
16:11Have you had this experience?
16:13Was there a change in you?
16:15Did you feel different somehow?
16:17I understand that happening to me
16:19is something beautiful.
16:21I think that like this is in heaven because for give you one example
16:27I am the mother of two daughters and like all normal mother. I will give my life for them
16:32But when I am with blessed Mary even my children don't exist
16:35It's only inside of myself wish that she bring me with her and you can imagine how big pain is
16:42When she leaving and I sing that I'm here on the earth
16:46And I always need to pray one hours two hours on my room
16:50To be able to understand that like this must to be that this is what God want. Do you still see the blessed Mary?
16:57Yeah, she tell me every 18th of March in all my life that I will have this apparition every 18th of March
17:05But she also said that I will have apparition every second day of each month
17:09But she didn't say still how much how long and every second of each month is most like
17:16Prayer for those who don't feel love of God yet what we saying unbelievers, but blessed Mary never say unbelievers
17:23Does she call you by your name by your Christian? She always saying my dear children
17:28Always is it a burden to have the weight of these apparitions upon you
17:33Is it a burden to be the person who's seen the blessed Virgin Mary if you sing one time face of blessed Mary
17:40You cannot say that is difficult for you because when you sing the love the pain
17:46Everything on the face of her for all her children and how I can say that for me. It's difficult
17:53When I sing what she doing for all of us when I saying us I thinking all the world
17:58How I can say that this is what I doing. It's difficult for me
18:01I cannot say because she is the one who leading everything
18:07Mariana and her friends have made Medjugorje into a focal point for Catholics
18:12My next stop must our house because of recent events become equally important to the Muslims
18:30In November
18:321993 one of the most callous acts of the war this bridge behind me which has stood for over 400 years and has now been
18:39Immaculately restored was destroyed by Bosnian Croat guns within seconds
18:54There was no reason for the destruction of the bridge
18:58Was a single vindictive act one of many which following the disintegration of Yugoslavia
19:03Brought terrible suffering to a land where Muslims and Christians once lived in peace
19:10I
19:12Said this is the peak Wow
19:14That's the highest peak in musta. I feel my stomach
19:18Yeah, I'm there already. I don't know in oh my god
19:21Oh
19:21Wow
19:22Unbelievable the rebuilding of the bridge has enabled members of the select mustari divers club to resume the perilous tradition of
19:31Hurling themselves 70 feet into just 15 feet of water and the idea is you've got to jump well
19:37Clear of the bridge and yes, we have to be the way you have to throw yourself out from the bit. Yes
19:54The destruction of the bridge became a symbol of the pitiless brutality of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s
20:01My friend Kamal and his family lived through those times
20:05What was it like when the when the bridge when this bridge was destroyed and what was the immediate sort of psychological
20:12effect for everybody
20:15So we mustarians it was like they have lost their
20:19Child because they have been born in musta they have been raised in musta they lived they breathe
20:27They they they first love
20:30Everything what what musta represent represented the bridge
20:35Yeah, they felt like they lost their child or they lost their father or mother
20:40That's how people who really love this city and this this bridge felt about it
20:48But it was only one act in a bitter struggle as races and religions jostled for power
20:54This city of tolerance and tradition was torn apart
21:00by
21:21Looking out there now come on
21:23I mean just look everything looks the wooded banks and the little terraces with their tables out. I mean this
21:28Do you find it hard to remember that you know, yeah, you know a dozen years ago
21:34There was such bloodshed around here. There was a war on I
21:39Think that's that is really nice nice question and quite a bit hard for me. But yes, it's beautiful. It's an amazing nature
21:47amazing structures amazing houses and people of course in the end, but
21:53Going back like 12 years or going back in 1993 when I was a 14 years old teenager
22:00It looked really
22:01How say unrealistic to me like that? I would be let's say sitting today here
22:09having child discussion
22:11with you and
22:13Because at that time we I was more like, okay how to survive
22:18Where to you know where to escape in case of
22:23Bombing so I was like
22:28Afraid afraid for my future
22:32Afraid because we could not see an end to this bloodshed that we had here
22:40Before I left muster I went with come out to one of the Muslim cemeteries where all the graves looked very new
22:48So many
22:50Young lives ended in 1993. They all ended 1993
22:55that was the height of the fighting that was the height of the fight and
23:01Yes, it is I would say one thing that I hope that these heroes haven't died in vain
23:18You
23:35Well, I'm going to be leaving muster by train which is going to take me deep into the heart of Bosnia and
23:41To the the city that's perhaps more synonymous with all the events that have happened in this area than any other
23:48Sarajevo, this is the must our Sarajevo Express
23:53When Bosnia Herzegovina rose from the ruins of Yugoslavia
23:57The various ethnic groups that made up the country Bosnian Serbs Bosnian Muslims Bosnian Croats
24:03Suddenly felt vulnerable and began to fight to safeguard the territory
24:08Nowhere was the fight more prolonged and destructive than in the capital Sarajevo
24:18I check in at the Holiday Inn famous for being the only hotel that journalists could stay at during the war
24:25Frequently shelled its most sought-after rooms were those without a view
24:31Say Sarajevo from here. It's just a city in a most spectacularly beautiful location
24:36It's almost unbelievable to think that only a little more than ten years ago
24:41They were coming to the end of the longest siege in modern European history and be no cars
24:45There'd be no trams. And even if you tried to cross that road out there, you could be shot by snipers for many of these buildings
25:08Today the wounds are healing the trams are running and the city is gradually rebuilding
25:14Sarajevo is a tough resilient working city whose inhabitants just want to get on with their lives
25:21Most of them don't want to talk about the war though sooner or later. Everybody does
25:35I take a tram to the outskirts of the city to see one of the reasons why what happened only 12 years ago
25:42Can't easily be forgotten
25:46The countryside where Sarajevo's used to go for walks and picnics is now a death trap as
25:52A mine clearance squad works away. I talked to its leader Damir once a soldier himself
25:59This particular part was a territory controlled by Republic of Serbs car me
26:04Yes, the Bosnian government army was further down in the field and in the further
26:10Further up up mountain the Bosnian Serbs moved their armies
26:13Yeah
26:14this was part of the sort of the ring and if you look at Sarajevo and
26:20You can see the mine belt right along the air completely surrounding the city and closing down
26:26It is good. But it's a and this is the old center
26:29And we are now
26:31This area just under the mountain
26:36So during the conflict at that time the
26:39We did not think about what will happen with Bosnia after but it's a fact that now we are paying the price big price
26:49For for use of landmines
26:55When you see all this
26:57painstaking work has to go on and the
27:00endless
27:01Amount of time it's going to take. I mean, how do you feel? Do you feel?
27:04do you feel very bitter about
27:07people who laid these mines and
27:10Well situation, it's difficult to say because I was part of it and
27:17For many people at that time was
27:20perfectly normal to use landmines
27:23the the conflict was so long and so difficult that I
27:29understand why
27:30If we had ten times more landmines those would be used
27:35If if you are facing really
27:38Powerful army on the other side and you expect something to happen
27:41you're gonna use everything you have in stock just to stop them from entering your trenches and
27:49Landmines were used for that landmines were used as a as a protection for the front lines and
27:57It is sad that now we are paying the price for that
28:05But at that time if you did not think about long-term at that time you had to think
28:11I'm gonna survive no matter what and I'm gonna use everything I got to protect myself
28:19It's such a beautiful place, I mean in England this would be a nature reserve
28:23We say oh, it's wonderful. The farmers agribusiness hasn't cleared all this. We've been value all this
28:29it's only here because
28:32Because of the war really
28:35Sarajevo
28:39Sarajevo's dramatic location at the focal point of north-south and east-west trade routes has made it one of the most
28:46Cosmopolitan cities in Europe its years as part of the Ottoman Empire have left behind a legacy of fine buildings and religious tolerance. I
28:56Walked through the old Turkish quarter with Adamir Kenovich a film director who kept working here throughout the war
29:03Risking his life to fly in and out to show the world his films
29:07He's teaching me a lot about the city including what streetwise Sarajevo's should drink
29:12Here we can get our drinks. Can you repeat it once again?
29:18Boza boza boza
29:22Boza it turns out is a fermented corn drink local speciality good
29:27Hmm
29:29So you'll first tell me how it is both boarded boza board boza boza
29:35Okay, she will give you
29:45Unusual taste different
29:47Lemony almost a lemon taste, but it's it's thicker than the lemon juice
29:52What was this area like during the the siege
29:56So operating where people still going to the mosque were still buying their bozo
30:01This is all closed. This is most of these places were devastated
30:07it's
30:08It's empty most of the time because you know, you can see the hills from this place
30:12wherever you can see the hills from you you wouldn't dare to go there, so
30:17There were sometimes we're very fast walking through these places and you know, but it was mainly empty during the war
30:24I mean people were hidden. I mean, did you feel
30:30Very very
30:31Frustrated that this was happening to your city a civilized city and you you had no electricity had no water
30:37And it went on for three years. I mean
30:41How did you keep yourself going I understand you're being British using the mild words like frustrated it was
30:48More than outrageous. Nobody here couldn't believe
30:52What's wrong with all these people?
30:55Letting all these idiots
30:57Maniacs and and that system to go and destroy the people and destroy all what sir
31:04What's good about this place?
31:07Mosques and churches were the first buildings to be repaired after the war
31:12Reasserting Sarajevo's tolerant tradition and helping to breathe new life into the old town
31:25My last meal in Sarajevo is memorable for good wine good humor good company and the enchanting sound of a singer
31:33Called Amira whose voice seems to echo all the pain and pleasure of this remarkable country
32:03Oh
32:33It's only a few hours drive from Sarajevo to Belgrade once the capital of all Yugoslavia
32:39Belgrade is now after defeats in three wars against the Croatians the Bosnians and the Kosovans the capital of a Serbia
32:46That's not only reduced but blamed squarely if not fairly for all the recent troubles
32:58Set impressively on the Danube Belgrade bears few obvious scars of war
33:04I catch a ride on the river for the charismatic DJ and critic of the Milosevic regime who thinks I can sail
33:16Okay
33:19Gosh the old arthritis a man of many names his current handle is modestly Rambo Amadeus
33:27What was the war like for you? Would you have to fight? Oh, no
33:30I was like what like for the shake soldier, you know for me. It was like
33:37Everybody tolerate me to be like peace brother
33:42guy
33:45So you didn't raise a gun in anger
33:48No quite opposite
33:52We had in Belgrade here a huge
33:56peace organization to struggle against
33:59To stop the war
34:02But it was quite a bad time in Serbia for a long time because you were involved in a war which
34:07You couldn't sort of win was it was bad time for all former Yugoslavia. No, it's like in Belgrade was like cow. Yeah, it was like
34:18If you throw your TV through the window you didn't notice anything
34:22Yes
34:24But actually nobody through TV to do it though. They're too put too precious. What was your feeling about Milosevic?
34:36When he was alive and he was in a power I had some thoughts about him now he's dead
34:43And I don't want to tell him but you can ask around
34:49what I
34:52Decided about him
34:54Somehow I think it is polite
35:04Serbs know how to party and Belgrade is renowned for its music available at all kinds of clubs at all hours of the night
35:12In
35:19One of the clubs I meet Tiana a DJ and singer and her friend Jelena a TV presenter
35:31We end up back on the Danube this time navigating the tricky waters of Serbia's recent past
35:38there was never a
35:41Real war in Serbia, so
35:43You don't get the same feeling as if you go to Bosnia or parts of Croatia that were
35:50Infected so that's why and Belgrade was always always had this metropolitan
35:55Glitter it was the capital city of ex Yugoslavia, too
35:59so I think the tradition of the city is in a way kept and
36:04There is also ironic side of this nation. So everyone's making jokes about their history
36:09So you have absurd things like celebrating the battle that we lost
36:14Nothing's improving now. I don't think that
36:18Things are going to change for better with the new generations
36:22I think new generations are you know, really because they grew up, you know in a way
36:29They did and it's going to be really confusing and crazy
36:33And I really don't know I have no idea what is going to happen
36:38So the prejudices are still there you think I think there is not a big hatred toward other nations in Balkans
36:47Not even among young
36:49younger generations
36:51Although they grew up in a very aggressive environment and they didn't actually
36:56Know what was happening. They were not aware. They just knew that there was a problem, but there is something this
37:04Damn Serbian mentality that is always coming on the surface
37:10This fleeting impression tells me the Serbs are well aware of the contradictions of their history. They're also rather proud of them
37:19In the hope of finding transport on through the Balkans
37:22I've come south to the busy port of Dubrovnik jewel of the Adriatic
37:28Even this treasure was not spared the violence of the war for half a year Bosnian Serb artillery
37:33Shelled the city from up on these cliffs
37:40Thanks to its beauty and its harbors Dubrovnik is once again flaunting its attractions
37:45Though there are many locals who worry that their city is becoming too popular
37:50But the cruise liner crowds are tarnishing the very beauty they've come to see
37:54Someone who still loves the atmosphere of the old town is Edin Karamazov
38:01A Bosnian who plays the lute so sweetly that Sting has made an album with him
38:11But he's kept the busking job just in case
38:15Edin that is not Sting
38:24As a storm blowing up from nowhere clears the stone-flagged streets of the city
38:49Edin with true Balkan hospitality offers me shelter in the apartment. He's been lent by a friend
38:54Do you go back to Bosnia? Oh, yeah, of course. I I just started loving Bosnia. It's a nice country
39:24It's your homeland
39:25Do you feel at home there? Let's say
39:29Although I I don't feel at home
39:32Nowhere
39:34At the moment. Yeah
39:38Home is everywhere. You are indeed a wandering minstrel. It seems so I
39:44you know when I look back I I traveled most of my life and I played everywhere and and and
39:52It's I think it's it's it's my it's it's my way in the end, although I never wanted to be a minstrel
40:00But I think it is so
40:08On this suitably soulful note my time here and in Croatia and indeed in the former Yugoslavia has come to an end
40:22With
40:27Some difficulty we found a boat that will take us down the coast to Albania
40:32Her captain is a part-time opera singer who's just played Judas in the Zagreb production of Jesus Christ Superstar
40:40He doesn't really want to go to Albania, but he listens politely as I burble on
40:45I rather like the idea of the mystery of Albania like the fact of it being secret everywhere is kind of opening up
40:50But it still seems to be the reclusive. Yeah, it was really one of the cloth the closest
40:59European country
41:01so and in our mind is still some kind of the black hole really I maybe I
41:09Will say maybe 50 people from Croatia even go to Albania. It's very communication
41:14Yeah, you know some businessmen they start
41:17Maybe some little business or something
41:21The captain does everything he can to avoid reaching Albania too quickly raising only his smallest sail and singing
41:38I'm not complaining, but we've another 17 countries to get through
41:51Oh
41:56Fine front
42:00Fine front
42:07What's the supper
42:12Very good
42:15Cooking the supper gives him another reason to slow the boat down. The muscle risotto is superb
42:30I accept now that the captain's not going to hurry and after washing my smalls. I settle in and surrender to the night
42:38I must say this
42:40Something to be said for this way of getting around Europe. I mean
42:43bobbing along the Adriatic
42:47Ancient trade routes of the world
42:50This lovely sort of symphony of creeks and groans. I mean, you know, you just don't get hotel rooms like this
43:04Tomorrow Albania
43:08Albania
43:25Amazingly enough we do eventually reach Duras Albania's main port and second city
43:31Well, we're now heading into the very heart of the Balkans and the first port of call is Albania
43:37Surely the most quirkily inscrutable country in Europe
43:41I know they had a king called Zog and for 45 years a hardline communist dictatorship
43:46But even having a map could land you in prison, but now they're open for business. We can see the reality for ourselves
43:53With Italy her main trading partner only 70 miles away
43:57Albania isn't exactly cut off
44:00Just feels that way
44:11On the beach at Duras, there's surreal evidence of the paranoid rule of Enver Hodger the dictator
44:17One of the first things you notice when you come ashore in Albania are bunkers everywhere
44:23Apparently there are about 400,000 of them scattered across the country a sort of symbol of the paranoia during the
44:30Hodger years
44:32but now some of the being
44:34Recycled rather nicely and certainly
44:36There's a lot of people who have lost their jobs. I mean, there's a lot of people who have lost their jobs
44:41Hodger years
44:43but now some of the being
44:45recycled rather nicely and certainly
44:48Make British beach huts look rather pathetic
44:51You'd have a nice holiday and repelling invasion from here
44:54And what can you say about you know, they're done sleeping and all those little Balmoral to see up and down the coast
44:59This is a proper decent beach hut
45:03right
45:11I
45:15Take the train from Duras inland to the capital Tirana. It's about an hour's ride away
45:26Under communism
45:27Investment in Albania stagnated and afterwards things got even worse when a huge pyramid selling scheme collapsed taking savings with it
45:36The villages we pass through show a bruised economy making a fragile recovery
45:42In
45:44The capital evidence of hardship is less immediately apparent
45:48The Albanians car of choice appears to be a Mercedes. Almost everybody has one and no one seems quite sure where they've all come from
46:03I get a part-time job with some young Albanian couriers
46:06They've been given the task of delivering some of the city's bills and business letters as the postal service and the traffic is so bad
46:24My fellow worker Ilya seems to know just what to do including wearing a helmet and getting a proper bike
46:30The natives are not friendly
46:38Yeah, you're some water, oh, thank you you need it after that. Oh, I'm done
46:44It's dangerous sometimes isn't it out there? Yeah, we said back who's a bike it is. Yeah
46:51Were you born here? Yeah
46:53It's a good place to grow up was before good place was before
46:58When before them before 15 years, really?
47:03Do you prefer it when it was a communist? Yeah, what's better? No car nothing no troubles
47:13A bit of nostalgia for the old days
47:16Yeah, I'm a bit of nostalgia for the old days
47:20Albania's national hero Skanderbeg fought the Turks, but today's hero is fighting for his city
47:27Hello, man. It's nice for you to
47:30to meet me Michael Payne
47:34And what a fantastic office. I've just noticed it's not really an office. It's an art gallery
47:44Eddie Rama is a former military officer in Albania
47:48Eddie Rama is an artist who became mayor of Tirana his notebooks doodled on during council meetings
47:55Give him inspiration for improving the city
47:59So I mean are these sort of I mean all these colors that you have here with that
48:03They're part of of how you approach the changing the city. I mean than the look of the city
48:09by painting the buildings
48:11colors are part of our life and
48:14It's really a pity that
48:17Cities are not really
48:20Reflecting this very special part and I think Tirana has a big potential to develop on colors
48:28so I would like the city to become like an
48:32Open-air contemporary arts living space, you know, and people it's like people living in an art space, you know
48:39So if every building would be painted every corner of the painting it would be amazing
48:44It would be a really
48:47extremely attractive city
48:49And so the idea for the the painted buildings comes really from from no idea of a penny business came in the beginning
48:56when I came in and we had no money and
48:59people had big expectations after 10 years of
49:03greatness and
49:05lack of hope and
49:08Tirana was like a transit station, you know where everybody wanted to leave somewhere
49:13Dirty and no communication. So we had to give a sign and how
49:18We thought colors are the best way
49:22You grew up here presumably during the Hodge years and all that I mean what must have been depressing with someone with an artistic a
49:30Color sense it must have been a bit depressing over the difference. Yeah, it was like a concentration camp. Yeah
49:36Private life was totally controlled
49:39Cafes didn't exist. We didn't have cafes
49:43What sort of education were you getting?
49:45So it was a Stalinist country. It was like
49:50We were isolated from both West and East
49:55So it really was and it was there was no other country was in the same situation as Albania then really
50:01No comparison when it all finished and wasn't a great feeling of did you feel the great spirit of
50:08excitement and opportunity and
50:10liberation
50:13It was like the end of nightmare
50:19Albania like most of the Balkan Peninsula is mountainous and here in the town of Kruje the 15th century heroes
50:26Skanderbeg used natural defenses to fight off three Turkish sieges
50:32In a country without a lot to celebrate this has made Kruje a national shrine and leading tourist attraction
50:40But Ilya Mati my guide has something rather different to show me
50:45He invites me to accompany a young man
50:47Who's taking a sheep to be sacrificed at the local monastery in the hope that it will make a dream come true
50:57So tell me about this dream
50:59Yeah, but in the basis of this procession. Yeah, this this little
51:05Pilgrimage. Yeah. Yeah pilgrimage. The basis is the dream a dream. Oh, yeah
51:12people
51:13have dreams
51:16About the person working in Europe in for in your I see so their family who are working in Europe
51:24They pray for them pray for them pray for them in this mountain, what do they pray the pray have
51:31Have documents and work documents work. Yeah, that's a simple goal for your prayer
51:39Don't seem to be too many people on this particular pilgrim trail this afternoon
51:45However, I dare say our reward will be greater
51:48The
51:51Monastery belongs to the Bektashi religion one of the offshoots of the mystical Sufi order of Islam
51:58Its position on the very top of the mountain is good for devotional contemplation, but hell on the thigh muscles
52:05Yes, where do we go? Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. I'm but I'm gasped. Ah, yeah
52:11Honored up. Oh so nice to sit down
52:16The holy man known as the barber doesn't initially look thrilled to see us
52:21But after a tumbler full of the holy man, he's not so thrilled to see us
52:25He's not so thrilled to see us. He's not so thrilled to see us
52:28He's not so thrilled to see us. He's not so thrilled to see us
52:31Initially look thrilled to see us but after a tumbler full of the local rocky. He seems to perk up a bit
52:38About very good to meet you in the mountain the villagers like to to have
52:45Racky Gazua Gazua. Yeah
53:01Regrettably the main business of our visit cannot be put off any longer and the pilgrim hands his sheep over for the sacrifice
53:19I've seen such things many times now, but I'll never ever get used to it
53:31a
53:34News of this successful sacrifice has cheered up the family no end
53:38I'm invited back for a party at which my pilgrim friend plays celebratory music with his father and brothers
54:01I
54:08Albania does seem very different from the other countries of the Balkans
54:12It may be looking increasingly to the west, but at heart it feels oriental
54:18And I have to remind myself that not only am I still in Europe, but I've a lot further east to go yet
54:31You