"Throughout most of my lifetime, an Iron Curtain has divided Eastern Europe from the West, preventing me from really getting to know it!" "I've flown over it, I've peered at bits of it, but I've never really travelled through it!" "Now the Iron Curtain has lifted, I'm going to make up for lost time and explore the other half of my continent, Europe!" "Here In the Slovenlan Alps, I'm turning my back on Western Europe and heading east to a world which Is changing at a remarkable speed." "Slnce the collapse of the Sovlet Empire, the number of countries In Eastern Europe has doubled." "Ten have already become members of the European Union and even countries like Turkey are keen to join them." "What lies ahead Is, for me, a voyage of discovery, an exploration of the people, the places, the mood and the spirit that Is transforming old lands Into a new Europe." "As we meander through the tranquil countryside of Slovenla," "It's hard to believe that this was the country whose walk-out from the Communlst conference In 1 990 began the break-up of Yugoslavla, one of the cornerstones of post-war Europe, and put six new European countries on the map." "I'll be travelling through them, to Croatla, Bosnla and Serbla, and beyond them, to the mysterious land of Albanla." "My first port of call Is Slovenla's southern neighbour, Croatla, whose beautiful coastline stretches languorously along the Adrlatlc." "Llke many of the countries of New Europe," "Croatla has a very old history." "Here In the port of Spllt, off a square built at the time of Napoleon," "Goran Golovko teaches children about the city's most famous son, the Roman Emperor Diocletian." "(SPEAKING CR0ATIAN)" "Goran's way of bringing history to life" "Is to portray the Romans as just one of the many peoples who have occupied Croatla over the years, very much like present-day tour groups that flock here every summer." "And I can see girls wearing tanga!" "Beautiful!" "Of all the ex-Yugoslav countries," "Croatla Is the one that seems most comfortable with International attention." "(SPEAKING FRENCH)" "You could say the Idea of East and West Europe began here." "It was Dlocletlan who took the momentous decision to divide the Roman Empire In two." "He ruled the East from a mighty palace here In Spllt, which Is still Inhablted." "G0L0VK0:" "The palace is still alive!" "People still live within it!" "And we can see architectural changes from medieval time onwards!" "PALIN:" "Has there been any attempt by municipal authorities to get rid of all the parasitic buildings on this beautiful thing?" "Because many people would think that was a bit of architectural desecration!" "G0L0VK0:" "Well, not any more!" "This is also part of traditional culture!" "This is how Split was developed!" " That washing looks very old indeed!" " Yes, it's Roman, actually!" "They didn't advertise it, but!" " It's still not dry!" " Yeah, but it's still there!" "So now we are at Peristil, which is the main square of the palace, where the emperor was appearing to his subjects!" "And we see these great colonnades of Corinthian style!" " Pillars!" " And this extraordinary feeling!" "You've got modern buildings with aluminium windows!" " Yes, this is my bank over there!" " That's your bank?" "Indeed!" "Where I shake in front of my bank manager!" "0kay!" "I don't think I've been anywhere quite like this, where you get the feeling of an empire which has just crumbled and been absorbed again by somebody else, been adapted!" "It's remarkable!" "I spy a piece of more recent Croatlan history, the name of the local football club." " Famous name for us football lovers!" " Yes!" " 0ne of Split's symbols!" " Yeah!" "If you're born into being a Hajduk fan, then you're a Hajduk fan for the rest of your life!" "The word Hajduk means a bandit, but In the good sense of bandit as patriot, fighting for his country against Venetlans and Ottoman Turks." "Goran takes me to meet Zdravko, a modern Croatlan patriot, who also happens to run one of the best restaurants In town." "PALIN:" "Hello!" "Yes, that's very good!" "Are you happy the way it's happening now with the tourists here?" "0f course, absolutely!" "You see, I always say to everybody I'm very, very happy!" "0f course, I'm very critical!" "But imagine, living, the fall of Communism, the creation of the free Croatia, a modern Croatian state, for the first time in modern history, winning the war, and sitting here at the age of 60!" "You know, the creation of the state alive and erect!" "It's a fantastic feeling!" "0f course, it's very emotional!" " Yeah!" " And, the other side," "I am, of course, critical!" "Why not?" "Because, at the very beginning, I was very, very mad because my Croatia was like a baby in a cradle!" "Now you can kick it in the!" "You know!" "0h, right!" "Now you can take it apart a bit!" "In the '90s, I wouldn't do that!" "Now, I'm very critical!" "It sounds as though you were a bit unhappy in the Communist time!" "Well, you know, Communism!" "I didn't like Communism because it was very limiting for work!" "You know what I mean?" "You see, people felt much more secure in ex-Yugoslavia because you'd get a job and you'd keep it for life!" " You know what I mean?" " Yeah!" "You get what you get, but!" "We didn't have so many possibilities to work, like this one!" " Like I'm working now, you see!" " Yeah!" "What sort of things define Croatia now," " Its role in the world, if you like?" " It is!" "Yes!" "When we look here now, the first time in history that we have our modern state!" " Yeah!" " You see!" "For example, in ex-Yugoslavia, I could not express my patriotism," "I would say, as freely as I do now!" "It had to fit into Yugoslavia, you know?" "But now you say, "I am Croatian!"" "It's a fantastic feeling when you can say it openly, without any fear, without any consequences!" "That's the point!" "These days self-expresslon breaks out Just about anywhere In Spllt," "Improvlsed, energetic and, after a few beers, embarrassingly Irreslstlble." "Can't walt to get home and tell the wife about this." "(CR0WD CHEERING)" "One of the most seductive attractions of Croatla are her Islands." "I take the ferry to Hvar, which comes highly recommended." " What can we expect to see there?" " It's a paradise!" "A paradise?" "0h, we're not allowed to go to paradises!" " You are!" " Yeah?" " You are!" " In what way?" "Just the look of the place?" "What is there to do there?" "The sands, the flowers of the island, the colours!" " You should love it!" " Yeah!" "I'm sure you will love it!" "Everyone does!" "Hvar beckons you before you even reach It with the heady scent of lavender, oregano and the broom that seems to cover the Island." "Attractlve as this might be to the tourists," "It hasn't done much for the locals, who have, over the years, left In droves to find work abroad." "One man who says he'll never leave Is Igor Zlvanovlc." "Raconteur, bon viveur and all-round character," "Igor has his own bar and restaurant In a back street of Starl Grad." "This is the family house, because my family has stayed 500 years!" "And then I'm here!" " Steeped in history, this!" " Yes, history!" "Do you know about all that slow food that they write about in Italy?" " Sometimes!" " Some of them try to do the slow food!" "Sometimes when we have friends in the bar and we are drinking wine, we are talking about the wine, about!" "I don't know!" "About my grandmother, about your grandmother, about the time when you were 1 6 or 1 7!" "And the stupid tourist, but really stupid, not a friend, he wants to eat something!" "I say, "You have 20 kuna!" "You can go get fast food!" " "I have no time!"" " I see!" "So if you want a quick meal, don't come in here!" " You are the Basil Fawlty of slow food!" " I enjoy to cook, to make the joke!" " What can I do for you now?" " You can bring me a glass of wine!" "White wine from the island of Hvar, please!" " 0kay, okay!" " There on the bar!" "My glass is on the left, yours is on the right!" "May take a few hours, but I'll do my best!" "Yeah!" "(READING LABEL)" " Igor, is this all right?" " And where is your glass?" "Well, I've got the bottle and the glass!" "You're the most important person at the moment!" "I'm taking it slowly today!" "According to your philosophy, there's no need to hurry!" "There you are!" " 0ne for you, one for me!" " Is this the right one?" " 0kay, I'll go and get one for me!" " This is the one from the island here!" " 0h, right!" " It's a table wine!" " 0n Hvar!" "Lovely!" " Yes!" "The meal, peppery lamb stew and fresh grilled sardines, Is delicious and I find myself helplessly drawn Into Igor's world, which Includes opinions on everything from Marshal Tito to McDonald's." " My rules!" " I think if you're going to travel, you should obey and accept the terms!" "If they make here a McDonald's, I will hang!" "You'd hang?" " We need a little!" " The first McDonald's martyr!" " The clocks all over!" " They're all at 3:04!" " Look, up there are some more!" " They're all at 3:04!" " 3:04!" " Why 3:04?" "This is the story, my dear!" "At that time, it's my ex-president, Josip Broz Tito, is dying!" " Ah, Tito died at 3:04?" " Tito!" "3:04!" "Maybe not, but so it was on TV!" "They said, "Now he's dying!" Super!" " Then I put all the clocks on 3:04!" " Yeah!" " And he was the biggest hedonist!" " Yeah!" "!" "In the history of modern civilisation!" "He was wonderful!" "After our lunch, Igor takes me out of the town to see the farms deserted by those who couldn't make these stony fields pay." "ZIVAN0VIC:" "They are from the 1 6th century!" "Sixteenth, seventeenth century!" "This is from the seventeenth century!" " What, this little!" " Yes, this one!" " Because in the middle!" " Ah, yes!" "You know, this triangle!" "How do you say?" " Headstone?" " Headstone!" "Bravo, bravo, bravo!" "You know everything about our architecture!" "Yeah, I've cracked it!" "At last!" " Yeah!" " Something I know about!" "Would you be happy to stay here, in this paradise, for the rest of your life?" "What have you said?" "You have said, "Paradise!"" " Yeah!" " Then the question is stupid, I'm sorry!" "Because, if this is paradise, then you mustn't make the question!" " You've come to the end of your life!" " Normally!" " Well, somebody called it paradise!" " You have said paradise!" " A girl I met on the boat said paradise!" " This is not my word!" "You are for a short time here and I'm sure that you will come back!" "I feel I've just got out In time." "There was something dangerously tempting about Hvar that made me want to stop the journey right there." "But the local fishermen make sure my ride across the water to Bosnla Is as painless as possible." "Fantastic!" "Little anchovies!" "0h, yeah!" "0kay!" "0oh, lovely!" "I'm having a half-pint of white wine, freshly-caught anchovies and oil made by the captain!" "I mean, this is the way to get around the world!" "I'm afraid someone has to do it!" "(T0ASTING)" "It's a short-llved celebration." "Beyond the mountains lies Bosnla-Herzegovlna, where things are a lot more complicated." "What I least expected to find" "In a country which probably suffered more from the break-up of Yugoslavla than any other, was a quiet line of pilgrims from all over the world wendlng their way up a mountainside to a place where, 26 years ago," "a group of local teenagers met and spoke with the Vlrgln Mary." "What those children saw has transformed the village of Medjugorje" "Into a boomtown which has already attracted 25 million visitors." "Desplte the fact that the Pope has refused to endorse the visions, or apparitions, as they call them here," "Medjugorje Is now the third most popular Cathollc site In Europe." "Mlrjana Draglcevlc Is one of the children who saw the Vlrgln and still does." "She's In her 40s now, married to a builder and living, to all Intents and purposes, a quiet suburban life." "She told me what happened on the mountain when she was 1 5." "The first day, we just ran away!" "We didn't go close to the!" " Were you frightened?" " Yes!" "Yes, because I didn't know what was happening to me!" "Nobody explained to me that this can happen, because our religious life in Communism was being in the home!" "Having had this experience, was there a change in you?" "Did you feel different somehow?" "I understand that happening to me is something beautiful, because to be with blessed Mary, I think, is like being in heaven!" "Because, to give you one example, I am the mother of two daughters, and, like all normal mothers, I would give my life for them!" "But when I am with blessed Mary, even my children don't exist!" "It's only, inside of myself, the wish that she bring me with her!" "And you can imagine how big the pain is when she is leaving and I see that I am here on the Earth!" "And I always need to pray, one hour, two hours, in my room, to be able to understand that like this it must be, that this is what God wants!" " Do you still see the blessed Mary?" " Yeah!" "She tells me every 1 8th of March, in all my life, that I will have this apparition every 1 8th of March!" "But she also said that I will have the apparition every second day of each month!" "But she didn't say how long!" "And every second of each month is most like a prayer for those who don't feel the love of God yet, what we are saying unbelievers!" "But blessed Mary never says "unbelievers"!" "Does she call you by your name, by your Christian name?" "She always says, "My dear children!" Always!" "Is it a burden to have the weight of these apparitions upon you?" "Is it a burden to be the person who's seen the blessed Virgin Mary?" "If you see one time the face of blessed Mary, you cannot say that it's difficult for you, because when you see the love, the pain, everything on the face of her, for all her children," "how can I say that, for me, it's difficult?" "When I see what she's doing for all of us, when I say "us", I'm thinking of all the world, how can I say that what I'm doing is difficult for me?" "I cannot say, because she is the one who is leading everything!" "Mlrjana and her friends have made Medjugorje" "Into a focal point for Cathollcs." "My next stop, Mostar, has, because of recent events, become equally important to the Musllms." "(CR0WD CHEERING)" "In November, 1 993, in one of the most callous acts of the war, this bridge behind me, which has stood for over 400 years and has now been immaculately restored, was destroyed by Bosnian-Croat guns within seconds!" "There was no reason for the destruction of the bridge." "It was a single, vindictive act, one of many which, following the disintegration of Yugoslavla, brought terrible suffering to a land where Musllms and Chrlstlans once lived In peace." " So this is the peak?" "Wow!" " The peak!" " That's frightening!" " The highest peak in Mostar!" "I feel my stomach is down there already!" "Yeah, this adrenalin!" "0h, my God!" " Wow!" " Unbelievable!" "The rebuilding of the bridge has enabled members of the select Mostarl Dlvers' Club to resume the perilous tradition of hurling themselves 70 feet Into just 1 5 feet of water." "And the idea is that you've got to jump well clear of the bridge, haven't you?" " Yes!" "You have to be away!" " You've gotta really throw yourself out!" "You have to throw yourself out from the bridge!" "The destruction of the bridge became a symbol of the pitiless brutality of the Balkan Wars of the 1 990s." "My friend Kamel and his family lived through those times." "What was it like when this bridge was destroyed and what was the immediate psychological effect?" "Was everybody distraught?" "For real Mostarians, it was like they lost their child!" " Yeah!" " Because they have been born in Mostar, they have been raised in Mostar, they lived, they breathed, their first love!" "Yeah!" "Everything that Mostar represented, represented the bridge, so they felt like they lost their child or they lost their father or mother!" "That's how people who really loved this city and this bridge felt about it!" "But It was only one act In a bitter struggle." "As races and religions Jostled for power, this city of tolerance and tradition was torn apart." "Looking out there now, Kamel, everything looks!" "The wooded banks and the little terraces with their tables out!" "Do you find it hard to remember that, only a dozen years ago, there was such bloodshed around here, there was a war on?" "I think that's a really nice question and quite a bit hard for me, but, yes, it's beautiful!" "It's an amazing nature, amazing structures, amazing houses and people, of course, in the end!" "But going back 1 2 years, or going back to 1 993, when I was a 1 4-year-old teenager, it looked really unrealistic to me!" "I would be, let's say, sitting today here having a chat, discussion with you!" "Because, at that time, I was more like, "0kay, how to survive?" ""Where to escape in case of bombing?" And so on!" "I was afraid!" "Afraid for my future!" "Afraid because we could not see an end to this bloodshed that we had here!" "Before I left Mostar, I went with Kamel to one of the Musllm cemeteries, where all the graves looked very new." "So many young lives ended in 1 993!" "They all ended in 1 993!" "That was, I suppose, the height of the fighting!" "That was the height of the fight!" "Yes, it is!" "I would say one thing, that I hope that these heroes haven't died in vain!" "Well, I'm going to be leaving Mostar by train, which is going to take me deep into the heart of Bosnia and to the city that's perhaps more synonymous with all the events that have happened in this area than any other, Sarajevo!" "This is the Mostar-Sarajevo express!" "When Bosnla-Herzegovlna rose from the ruins of Yugoslavla, the various ethnic groups that made up the country," "Bosnlan Serbs, Bosnlan Musllms, Bosnlan Croats, suddenly felt vulnerable and began to fight to safeguard their territory." "Nowhere was the fight more prolonged and destructive than In the capital, Sarajevo." "I check In at the Hollday Inn, famous for being the only hotel that journalists could stay at during the war." "Frequently shelled, its most sought-after rooms were those without a view." "See, Sarajevo, from here, is just a city in a most spectacularly beautiful location!" "It's almost unbelievable to think that, only a little more than 1 0 years ago, they were coming to the end of the longest siege in modern European history!" "And there'd be no cars, there'd be no trams, and, even if you tried to cross that road out there, you could be shot by snipers from any of these buildings!" "(GUNS FIRING)" "Today the wounds are healing, the trams are running and the city Is gradually rebuilding." "Sarajevo Is a tough, resilient working city whose Inhabltants Just want to get on with their lives." "Most of them don't want to talk about the war, though, sooner or later, everybody does." "I take a tram to the outskirts of the city to see one of the reasons why what happened only 1 2 years ago can't easily be forgotten." "The countryside where Sarajevans used to go for walks and picnics" "Is now a death trap." "As a mine clearance squad works away," "I talk to its leader, Damlr, once a soldier himself." "This particular part was a territory controlled by the Republika Srpska Army!" "Yes, right!" "The Bosnian Government Army was further down in the field and further up the mountain!" "So the Bosnian Serbs moved their armies!" "Yeah, this was part of the ring!" "And if you look at Sarajevo, you can see the mine belt!" "Right along the hills!" "Yeah, completely surrounding the city and closing down!" "This is Grbavica and this is the old centre!" "And we are now in this area, just under the mountain!" "So during the conflict, at that time, we did not think about what will happen with Bosnia after!" "But it's a fact that now we are paying the price, a big price, for the use of landmines!" "When you see all this painstaking work that has to go on and the endless amount of time it's going to take, how do you feel?" "Do you feel very bitter about the people who laid these mines and created this situation?" "Well, it's difficult to say because I was part of it!" "And for many people, at that time, it was perfectly normal to use landmines!" "The conflict was so long and so difficult that I understand why, if we had 1 0 times more landmines, those would be used!" "If you are facing a really powerful army on the other side and you expect something to happen, you're going to use everything you have in stock just to stop them from entering your trenches!" "And landmines were used for that!" "Landmines were used as a protection for the frontlines!" "And it is sad that now we are paying the price for that!" "But, at that time, we did not think about long term!" "At that time, you had to think, "I'm going to survive, no matter what," ""and I'm going to use everything I got to protect myself!"" "It's such a beautiful place!" "In England, this would be a nature reserve!" "They'd say, "0h, it's wonderful!" ""The farmers' agro-business hasn't cleared all this!"" "We would value all this!" "But it's only here because of the war, really!" "(SPEAKING SERBIAN)" "In a local school, a Serblan theatre group, helped with money from UNICEF, uses puppets and jokes to put across the deadly serious message that a walk In the woods could be fatal." "The group, organised by Dlana here, turn the classroom Into a courtroom where landmines and other weapons are put on trial, with the children as the jury." "Maybe half a kilometre or a kilometre outside of this school region, you have lots of landmine fields!" "Some of them are marked, some are not!" "So that's why we try to keep children aware that they should really be careful of where they go, especially when it comes to going to nature or to the mountains!" "What does it do to the community here to have these mines all around, with the fields and the economy and all that?" "It has a very negative impact on the economy!" "This particular part of Bosnia was very famous for the woodcutting industry!" "People used to go to the forest to cut wood or to collect medical herbs or to even collect mushrooms!" "Now they can no longer do it!" "0r they have a choice, either basically to starve because they have no income, or to go to the forest and risk being killed or injured by the landmines!" "PALIN:" "It's kind of depressing!" "DIANA:" "It is!" " !" "For the future of these children!" " You're right!" "That's why many families are leaving this town!" "This school was built for 600 pupils!" "Now it has a bit over 1 20 pupils!" "That means, some due to the war, but mostly due to the economic reasons, families are just leaving this community because they have no jobs here, which is very sad!" "It's a beautiful part of Bosnia!" "Yeah!" "The good news Is that, thanks to work like this, the deaths from landmine accidents are less than 20 a year." "The bad news Is that It may be another 70 years before It's safe to walk In the Bosnlan countryside again." "Sarajevo's dramatic location at the focal point of north-south and east-west trade routes has made It one of the most cosmopolitan cities In Europe." "Its years as part of the Ottoman Empire have left behind a legacy of fine buildings and religious tolerance." "I walk through the old Turklsh Quarter with Ademlr Kenovlc, a film director who kept working here throughout the war, risking his life to fly In and out to show the world his films." "He's teaching me a lot about the city," "Including what streetwlse Sarajevans should drink." "Here we can get our drinks!" " Can you repeat it once again?" " Er, bod!" " Boza!" " Boza!" "Boza!" "(KEN0VIC SPEAKING B0SNIAN)" "Boza, It turns out, Is a fermented corn drink, a local speciality." "Good!" " So, you'll first tell me how it tastes!" " Bor!" " Boza!" " Bor!" "Boza!" "Boza!" "I keep wanting to put an 'R' in it!" "(T0ASTING) 0kay!" "Well, that's!" "Yes!" " Unusual taste, that!" " Different, huh?" "It's got almost a lemon taste, but it's thicker than a lemon juice!" "What was this area like during the siege?" "Was it still operating?" "Were people still going to the mosque?" " Still buying their boza?" " No, no, no, this was all closed!" "Most of these places were devastated!" "It's empty most of the time because you can see the hills from these places!" "Wherever you can see the hills from, you wouldn't dare to go there." "So there was sometimes very fast walking through these places, but It was mainly empty during the war." "People were hidden." "Did you feel very, very frustrated that this was happening to your city, a civilised city, and you had no electricity, you had no water?" " And it went on for three years!" " Yeah, but being!" "How did you keep yourself going, really?" "I understand you, being British, using the mild words like "frustrated"!" "It was more than outrageous!" "Nobody here could believe, what's wrong with all these people, letting all these idiots and maniacs and that system go and destroy the people and destroy all that's good about this place!" "Mosques and churches were the first buildings to be repaired after the war, reasserting Sarajevo's tolerant tradition and helping to breathe new life Into the old town." "My last meal In Sarajevo Is memorable for good wine, good humour, good company and the enchanting sound of a singer called Amlra, whose voice seems to echo all the pain and pleasure of this remarkable country." "(SINGING IN B0SNIAN)" "Bravo!" "It's only a few hours' drive from Sarajevo to Belgrade." "Once the capital of all Yugoslavla," "Belgrade Is now, after defeats In three wars against the Croatlans, the Bosnlans and the Kosovans, the capital of a Serbla that's not only reduced but blamed squarely, If not fairly, for all the recent troubles." "Set impressively on the Danube, Belgrade bears few obvious scars of war." "I cadge a ride on the river with a charismatic DJ and critic of the Mllosevlc regime who thinks I can sail." " As are we at the moment!" " Let's!" "All right!" " Tacking!" " Tacking, okay!" "(GRUNTING)" "My gosh, the old arthritis!" "A man of many names, his current handle Is, modestly, Rambo Amadeus." "What was the war like for you?" "Did you have to fight?" "No, I was like a fake soldier!" "For me, it was like!" "Everybody tolerated me to be like a "peace, brother" guy, you know!" "So you didn't raise a gun in anger?" "No, quite the opposite!" "We had in Belgrade here a huge peace organisation to struggle against!" "To stop the war!" "But it was quite a bad time in Serbia for a long time because you were involved in a war which you couldn't win!" "It was a bad time for all of the former Yugoslavia!" "Yeah!" "If you threw your TV through the window, you didn't notice anything!" "But actually, nobody threw the TV through the window!" " Too precious!" " Yeah!" "What was your feeling about Milosevic?" "When he was alive and he was in power, I had some thoughts about him!" "Now he's dead and I don't want to tell anything!" "But you can ask around" " What I was thinking about him!" " I can find out from people, yeah!" "But somehow I think it is polite!" "(H0USE MUSIC PLAYING)" "Serbs know how to party and Belgrade Is renowned for its music, available at all kinds of clubs, at all hours of the night." "In one of the clubs I meet Tljana, a DJ and singer, and her friend Jelena, a TVpresenter." "We end up back on the Danube, this time navigating the tricky waters of Serbla's recent past." "There was never a real war in Serbia, so you don't get the same feeling as if you go to Bosnia, or parts of Croatia, there were war!" " We've seen that, yeah!" " So that's why!" "And Belgrade always had this metropolitan glitter!" "It was the capital city of ex-Yugoslavia, too, so I think the tradition of this city is, in a way, kept!" "And there is also the ironic side of this nation, so everyone's making jokes about their history!" "So you have absurd things like celebrating the battle that we lost!" "Are things improving now?" "I don't think that things are going to change for the better with the new generations!" "I think the new generations are really!" "Because they grew up in the way they did!" "And it's going to be really confusing and crazy and!" "I really don't know!" "I have no idea what is going to happen!" "So the prejudices are still there, you think?" "I think there is not a big hatred toward other nations in the Balkans, not even among younger generations!" "Although they grew up in a very aggressive environment, they didn't actually know what was happening!" "They were not aware!" "They just knew that there was a problem!" "But there is something, this damn Serbian mentality, that is always coming on the surface!" "Thls fleeting impression tells me the Serbs are well aware of the contradictions of their history." "They're also rather proud of them." "In the hope of finding transport on through the Balkans," "I've come south to the busy port of Dubrovnlk, jewel of the Adrlatlc." "Even this treasure was not spared the violence of the war." "For half a year, Bosnlan Serb artillery shelled the city from up on these cliffs." "Thanks to its beauty and its harbours," "Dubrovnlk Is once again flauntlng its attractions, though there are many locals who worry that their city Is becoming too popular and that the crulse-llner crowds are tarnishing the very beauty they've come to see." "Someone who still loves the atmosphere of the old town Is Edln Karamazov, a Bosnlan who plays the lute so sweetly that Stlng has made an album with him." "But he's kept the busking job, Just In case." "Edln, that Is, not Stlng." "As a storm, blowing up from nowhere, clears the stone-flagged streets of the city," "Edln, with true Balkan hospitality, offers me shelter In the apartment he's been lent by a friend." "Do you go back to Bosnia?" "0h, yeah, of course!" "I just started loving Bosnia!" "It's a nice country!" " It's your homeland!" " Yeah!" " Do you feel at home there?" " Let's say, yeah!" "Although I don't feel at home nowhere at the moment!" " Nowhere?" " Yeah!" " No?" " Yeah!" "Home is everywhere!" " You are, indeed, a wandering minstrel!" " It seems so!" "You know, when I look back," "I travelled most of my life and I played everywhere!" "And I think it's my way, in the end, although I never wanted to be a minstrel!" "But I think it is so!" "On this suitably soulful note, my time here and In Croatla and, Indeed, In the former Yugoslavia has come to an end." "Wlth some difficulty, we've found a boat that will take us down the coast to Albanla." "Her captain Is a part-tlme opera singer who's just played Judas" "In the Zagreb production of Jesus Christ Superstar!" "He doesn't really want to go to Albanla, but he listens politely as I burble on." "I rather like the idea of the mystery of Albania!" "I like the fact of it being secret!" "Everywhere is kind of opening up, but it still seems to be the reclusive country!" "Yeah, it was really one of the closed European countries!" "So, in our mind, it's still some kind of black hole!" "Really, maybe!" "I will say maybe 50 people from Croatia even go to Albania!" "It's very!" "Communication!" "Some businessmen, they start, maybe, some little business or something like that!" "The captain does everything he can to avoid reaching Albanla too quickly, raising only his smallest sail and singing a lot." "(SINGING 'O SOLE MIO)" "I'm not complaining, but we've another 1 7 countries to get through." " What's for supper?" " What's that?" "I heard some echo!" "Yeah, very good!" "Very good!" "Cooklng the supper gives him another reason to slow the boat down, but the mussel risotto Is superb." "You can put this in the sea, back!" "All right!" "0kay!" "I suppose that's the way they've come!" "I don't want to lose any of this nice risotto, though!" "I accept now that the Captaln's not going to hurry and, after washing my smalls, I settle In and surrender to the night." "I must say there's something to be said for this way of getting round Europe!" "I mean, bobbing along the Adriatic, along one of the most ancient trade routes of the world with this lovely sort of symphony of creaks and groans!" "I mean, you just don't get hotel rooms like this!" "Lovely, really!" "And tomorrow, Albania!" "Tomorrow, Albania!" "(CAPTAIN SINGING 'O SOLE MIO)" "Amazlngly enough, we do eventually reach Durres," "Albanla's main port and second city." "Well, we're now heading into the very heart of the Balkans, and the first port of call is Albania, surely the most quirkily inscrutable country in Europe!" "I know they had a king called Zog and, for 45 years, a hard-line Communist dictatorship where even having a map could land you in prison!" "But now they're open for business!" "We can see the reality for ourselves!" "Wlth Italy, her main trading partner, only 70 miles away," "Albanla Isn't exactly cut off." "It just feels that way." "On the beach at Durres, there's surreal evidence of the paranoid rule of Enver Hoxha, the dictator who embraced first Stalln, then Chalrman Mao." "0ne of the first things you notice when you come ashore in Albania are bunkers everywhere!" "Apparently, there are about 400,000 of them scattered across the country, a sort of symbol of the paranoia during the Hoxha years!" "But now some of them are being recycled rather nicely and certainly make British beach huts look rather pathetic!" "You could have a nice holiday and repel an invasion from here!" "And what can you say about Dunsleepin' and all those little Balmorals you see up and down the coast?" "This is a proper, decent beach hut!" "Right?" "I take the train from Durres Inland to the capital, Tlrana." "It's about an hour's ride away." "Under Communlsm, Investment In Albanla stagnated, and, afterwards, things got even worse when a huge pyramid selling scheme collapsed, taking savings with lt." "The villages we pass through show a bruised economy making a fragile recovery." "In the capital, evidence of hardship Is less immediately apparent." "The Albanlans' car of choice appears to be a Mercedes." "Almost everybody has one, though no one seems quite sure where they've all come from." "I get a part-tlme job with some young Albanlan couriers." "They've been given the task of delivering some of the city's bills and business letters because the postal service and the traffic Is so bad." "My fellow worker, Ilir, seems to know just what to do," "Including wearing a helmet and getting a proper bike." "The natives are not friendly." "(H0RNS H0NKING)" " Ilir, do you want some water?" " 0h, thank you!" "Thank you very much!" " You need it after that!" " I'm tired!" "It's dangerous sometimes, isn't it, out there?" " Yeah!" "With a bike, it is!" " Yeah!" " Were you born here?" " Yeah, I was born in Tirana!" "Ah!" "Was it a good place to grow up?" " It was before a good place!" " Was before?" " Before it was a good place!" " When?" "Before the!" "Before, 1 5 years!" " Really?" " Yeah!" " Do you prefer it when it was Communist?" " Empty!" "Yeah, it was better!" "No car, nothing, no troubles!" "(LAUGHS) No troubles!" "A bit of nostalgia for the old days!" "Albanla's national hero, Skanderbeg, fought the Turks, but today's hero Is fighting for his city." " Hello, Mayor!" " Hi!" "It's nice of you to meet me!" "Michael Palin!" "And what a fantastic office!" "I've only just noticed!" " Yeah, it's not bad!" " It's not really an office!" " It's an art gallery!" " Have a seat!" "Edl Rama Is an artist who became mayor of Tlrana." "Hls notebooks, doodled on during council meetings, give him Inspiration for improving the city." "So, all these colours that you have here, they're part of how you approach changing the city?" "I mean, the look of the city, by painting the buildings and that!" "Well, colours are part of our life, and it's really a pity that cities are not really reflecting" " This very special part!" " I absolutely agree!" "And I think Tirana has a big potential to develop on colours, so I would like this city to become an open-air contemporary arts living space!" "It's like people living In an arts space." "So, If every building would be painted, every corner would be painted," "It would be amazing and It would be a really extremely attractive city." "PALIN:" "And so the Idea for the painted buildings comes, really, from you?" "RAMA:" "No, the Idea of the painted buildings came In the beginning, when I came In and we had no money and the people had big expectations after 1 0 years of greyness and lack of hope." "And Tlrana was like a transit station where everybody wanted to leave for somewhere." "Dlrty and no communication." "So we had to give a sign, and how?" "We thought colours are the best way." "You grew up here, presumably, during the Hoxha years and all that!" "It must have been depressing for someone with an artistic colour sense!" "It must have been a bit depressing, or were there good things?" "No, it was like a concentration camp!" "Private life was totally controlled!" "Cafes didn't exist." "We didn't have cafes." "What sort of education were you getting?" "It was a Stalinist country!" "It was like we were isolated from both West and East, you know?" "So there was no other country that was in the same situation as Albania, then, really!" " Kind of unusual!" " No comparison!" "When it all finished, was there a great feeling!" "Did you feel a great spirit of excitement and opportunity and liberation?" "Sure, sure!" "It was like the end of a nightmare!" "To escape Tlrana's turbulent traffic," "I take a taxi out of town to see what life's like beyond the city limits." "Thls Involves negotiating the Infamous Blackblrd roundabout, named after a brothel that used to stand on the site, maybe still does, for all I know." "The Mayor is doing his best to beautify Tirana, but there are times when a city needs something more than art, like roads that work, and, until you get the infrastructure right," "I think Tirana is never really going to thrive!" "As a friend of mine once said about a British city that tried to paint its way out of trouble, "You can't polish a turd!"" "Albanla, like most of the Balkan peninsula, Is mountainous, and here In the town of Kruja, the 1 5th-century hero Skanderbeg used natural defences to fight off three Turklsh sleges." "In a country without a lot to celebrate, this has made Kruja a national shrine and leading tourist attraction." "But Illlr Matl, my guide, has something rather different to show me." "He Invites me to accompany a young man who Is taking a sheep to be sacrificed at the local monastery" "In the hope that It will make a dream come true." "So tell me about this dream!" "Yeah!" "That's the basis of this procession!" "Yeah!" "This little pilgrimage, yeah!" "Yeah, pilgrimage!" "The basis is the dream!" " A dream?" " Yeah!" "People have dreams about the person working in Europe!" " In Europe!" " 0h, I see!" "So their family, who are working in Europe," " They pray for them!" "Ah!" " And they pray for them!" " Pray for them in this mountain!" " What do they pray for?" "They pray they have documents and work!" "PALIN:" "Documents and work!" "That's a simple goal for your prayer!" "Don't seem to be too many people on this particular pilgrim trail this afternoon!" "However, I daresay our reward will be greater!" "The monastery belongs to the Bektashl religion, one of the offshoots of the mystical Sufi order of Islam." "Its position on the very top of the mountain" "Is good for devotional contemplation, but hell on the thigh muscles." "Hello!" "Very pleased to meet you!" "Yes!" "Difficult to get here, but!" " You may go there!" " Yes, where do we go?" " Because you are an important guest!" " I'm here?" "Ah!" "0h, wow!" "I'm honoured!" "(GR0ANING) So nice to sit down!" "Right!" "The holy man, known as the baba, doesn't Initially look thrilled to see us, but, after a tumbler full of the local raki, he seems to perk up a bit." "(SPEAKING ALBANIAN)" "Baba, very good to meet you!" "In the mountain, the villagers like to have raki!" "(T0ASTING)" "Mmm!" "Regrettably, the main business of our visit cannot be put off any longer and the pilgrim hands his sheep over for the sacrifice." "I've seen such things many times now, but I'll never, ever get used to lt." "News of the successful sacrifice has cheered up the family no end and I'm Invited back for a party at which my pilgrim friend plays celebratory music with his father and brothers." "Albanla does seem very different from the other countries of the Balkans." "It may be looking Increaslngly to the West, but, at heart, It feels oriental, and I have to remind myself that not only am I still In Europe, but I've a lot further east to go yet."