Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | The Greek Islands | S07 E03 | All Documentary

my lord, I took a walk through this beautiful world I felt the cool rain on my shy shoulder you who come here stopping in Naxos you go from island to island you are going to come is this the destination well, I mean, going from island to island happens a lot during summer, so I know that someone who has organized a two or three week vacation in Greece will probably want to visit at least two or three

islands

. So how many

islands

in this group of islands, the Cyclades, are there about 15, maybe more, Andros Tinos, Mykonos, Syros, Paros, Naxos, Ampido? and germaine and more right and the rest and the rest yes, a lot of history here on the

greek

islands of naxos in particular, where zeus himself was said to live, where his son dionysus cavorted and presumably drank and organized orgies, let himself fall and I danced everything. night to the bc version of edm these days you have to go to mykonos for that anyway lombroskier has a bar in athens but he comes here frequently to get away from it all.

If you were Greek, you would definitely love to get on a boat and go. aside, you know, there is an air of mysticism about them, like an arcane feeling that definitely does not exist in the other island archipelagos of Greece. I guess I like this, a big glass of rocky on the rocks and a big glass of crushing lyrics that are uh, it's a little more than I'd like well, I'll take a sip hey llamas, good morning yeah, somehow it puts the day in perspective when you start with a drink yeah, I like the wind here, in fact, it's one of the really nice thing about this island is that breeze, you know, the hallways, it's like our main hobby, talking about the wind , the wind comes, when it leaves, what beach do you go to when the wind comes from the north, south, yes, most islands want to claim that they actually like it.

Odysseus Ulysses was from there, right, Homer was from the united group, you know, a bit of mythology fame in his islands, I can tell you that this Ulysses was kind of an idiot and he left his wife alone for how long and how far away he was from home it wasn't that far it wasn't that far I mean he was on the islands you know he couldn't go home and you know, throw a quick one at the wife, you know it before and then he gets angry because she has to look somewhere else part, he came up with this amazing story, yeah, I don't know, it was these girls who sang and lured the boat onto the rocks, they weren't hot, although they were very ugly, I think you summed it up perfectly there.

Go to the Iliad, I see many empty villas, like many half-finished constructions, yes, they all stopped like a few years ago. The money ran out at that point. I don't want to talk about the financial crisis. It's discouraging me. hard in my total buzz the pressures of the outside world I don't want to think about it I'm going to a Greek island here it's a beautiful day I plan to pass out on the beach shortly you know maybe some watercolors do a little cooking more naps eat naps contemplate the mysteries of the universe or taking a nap those are all honorable choices I mean, that's what a vacation is for me is sitting still and doing nothing I wanted to walk away from all of this gently gently into another season of television not abrupt It looks easy in the late summer of 2015 with the cyclones and feels a million miles away from Greece, as seen in the clear headlines, which has asked its people if they accept strict reforms as part of the country's second bailout. 40,000 Greeks have taken to the streets.

The country could be thrown out of the euro Athens could be just a few words away from the financial disaster they say Greece is on the brink of an economic apocalypse broke in danger of being seized by disdainful European powers, on top of that there is the crisis of refugees in greece Probably the country least prepared and least equipped to host thousands of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere is being inundated with desperate women, children and men arriving on its shores alive and dead and yet, here on Naxos, one of the thousands of Greek islands that could for now if you chose to remain blissfully ignorant of what is happening elsewhere pretend that everything is like here beautiful dream delicious food everything is fine john steinbeck said that any man who puts his intelligence against a fish and loses deserves it, but the Greek fishing trade doesn't You have a chance when you are hit first by the double whammy of declining fish stocks, then the financial crisis and declining demand, life is good in Maxos compared to the mainland, really yes, I say it right if you come from this island with fresh air, the sea. now this gentleman is a fisherman george is a fisherman his name is fearless brave george yes as I understand it on many if not all of the

greek

islands the government or the EU are offering buyouts to fishermen they are basically saying we will pay them. not fishing, trying to get the older national fishermen out of the way, basically so that the small ones, yes, the small ones, basically, the small ones, to get more commercial fishing imported into the land, quite a few have sold their businesses. their boats and moved into tourism here, I mean, as far as the economic crisis goes, I mean, you have the whole EU crushing poor Greece.

Greeks are being portrayed as basically lazy, welfare junkies. What happened, I'm pretty sure. He wants to say that the politicians and the people and the people are paying for all the bad actions of the politicians. We had a good period living off other people's money for about 40 years. It was a lot of fun abroad. So the wreck was a cargo ship and it crashed. in the Maras River in 1982, so that's 34 years in the water, diving in the cyclones is one of the best in the Mediterranean and I was told that this shipwreck was full of stolen doubloons and Nazi morphine pads.

The dive master has certainly never heard these rumors. There is no treasure down there, nothing sinister or even maybe there was inside in the engine room. I never got there so I don't know what's inside. The rumor is that they crushed it on purpose so they could take the insurance and so no one was injured. They were all transported. safe and sound to the port of ayana that is a rumor of course how many times have you been in that shipwreck hundreds of hundreds of times it never gets old you still have fun yes, each time the Greek islands are special compared to the rest of the country Tourism in Noxus is going quite well, in fact it is on the rise.

I don't know what your family told you and you said you know I'm going to go to Knox and run a dive center. I know my parents would have said you should do something sensible with a future like banking, as it turns out this was a sensible career choice. I guess I applaud because about 25 percent of the nation is unemployed and now they say about 40 percent live nearby. to the poverty line that apparently is the continent and yet tourism is stable and maybe even growing, tourism is getting bigger even though it is completely opposite to the crisis, so people basically He says, oh you know, financial crisis, beautiful islands, beautiful country, yeah, now it's time to go. because we can get it for cheap tourism its the only thing i thought saved greece apart from this everything else collapsed its really beautiful yes medea antigone helen of troy aphrodite demeter greek women have always been known for their beauty, their ferocity, their strength. their willingness to fight for what they believe in and these ladies who call themselves the streetwalkers, these women are very much part of that tradition when I mentioned I was drinking uzo before I was kind of a streetwalker, who are we?

What is a theater? musical group with political wow with political themes and talks a lot about what we live today in Greece in Athens I have seen you described as an anarchist ah no I don't like the stereotypes I don't like the characteristics yes of course I like them a lot To a large extent, the anarchist philosophy Of course it talks about solidarity and the common good because in all of Greece now it is very difficult during the 90s, there was all this wealth and prosperity and we all agreed with this, but now is the time to talk about politics and do politics . statements in much of the world, Greece is being portrayed as if Greeks are used to not having to pay taxes.

The stereotype is great. Is it true or not? It is a very good strategy to create a stereotype of the people you want to exploit. They say they are lazy they are terrible it is propaganda we can put them from the moment we built our state we built it with loans the great powers england france russia helped us build our state so we are owners from this moment the truth is that This nation never takes care from the citizens, they gave nothing back to the people, so why pay their taxes? There is this trust, a basic distrust that people are going to spend money well, it is not a mentality that comes from our genes ourselves, we are not like lazy people, so what would happen if Greece was in the EU?

Here for the people of Greece it is a feeling that, oh, if we leave the European Union, we are lost, we are people who may be ready to do it. We run the risk of going in another direction because this direction does not work for us. No one is suggesting that we return to an agrarian wonderland. We are all going to farm together and live in a commune. Why don't you like this idea? Yes, why not? Some of us will. of us, if I put a yogurt in the refrigerator and I put my name on it Tony and someone takes a bite of it, I really have a problem, yeah, that's why I don't live in a commune, because someone will take it and I hate my yogurt, yeah, but If you didn't have the yogurt you'd like to eat it from someone else and I will, hey, yeah, an idyllic mountain town, aperontos, the kind of place where you can still walk into a town square and get stuck. in a celebration, this one celebrates the return of Greek-American actor John Stamos to a packed house, then prepare for rocky wine and being fed by strangers.

I think they sent a villager to go to the army, basically a good reason for everyone to come to you. I know, let out some steam and the famous potatoes, of course, and they are famous, but this is called rostov, which is a traditional nacho style, pork, wine, tomato sauce, pepper and garlic, so you make wine , I make one, yes, I make a good wine born here. No, I was not born here. I joined Access when I was 23 years old from Athens. Very different. Life here. I think you live every moment of your life here. Yes.

You really feel the freedom. This town. What do people do here? a living agricultural tourism, yes, I guess it's a combination. I noticed a lot of churches, small chapels, there are a lot of things and it is basically the continuation of the original temples. Oh, were they temples of Apollo or even Zeus or Latin or something they changed to? churches, hey, you guys thought pagan idolatry was fun, check it out, Christianity, it's a lot more fun, it'll slide right in there, you won't even notice without a problem, yeah, an important island in mythology, even though it's the only society, He is the god of wine, the women in the song, basically. and madness and madness one of the things I like about Greek mythology is that all the gods were deeply flawed, that is, they had some serious problems, they were always sleeping with humans, they were jealous, they got angry, they were not pure, they were.

They weren't perfect, they weren't divine, they were, they were human, yeah, not every once in a while, the honest ones showed up like everyone said, okay, let's have a good time, why not? Yes, I'm a foreigner, so food porn is so easy at this point. like shooting fish in a barrel, I mean, you want this, of course you do, but you can't have it. A family farm. This dates back to the Venetians. Mom, dad, daughter, Maria, her husband, Janis, who happens to be the regional governor of the Aegean. the food starts with stuffed peppers, the famous potatoes, so the rest of the country doesn't do so well, but apparently here it's pretty good, yes, what's different about access is self-esteem, self-esteem, for example, Nexus , you can find 130,000 goats and lambs. and also half of the population cultivates the land, so they are farmers, so it is not just a tourist economy, things are produced here, things are grown.

This is yes, let me ask you a difficult question. I'm not going to ask you this question because you have to. Be diplomatic on difficult issues like this. I guess not his father. So who caused the Greek financial crisis? or should I aspire to this means Greek Greek stay here you are bound to the land the land of your ancestors the farm itself how long has it been in the family? My grandfather bought this from my father in 1901 foreign for us in the family it is a very special place and especially for me and I think for my father it has a special vibe there is a good energy in this land um so please translate so I went to the beach today, I'm lying there having a good time.

Suddenly, as if 200 nudists showed up in the late afternoon, I find myself on a fishing boat reflecting on matters of great importance, so here's my question. It's a philosophical question. Greece is the home of philosophy as we know it. Why the first people to take off their clothes? The last people you want to see naked afterwards, of course, and theGeorge's son, Nico, that's so good it's unbelievable. It's as traditional as it gets. All of these dishes are used as an appetizer before the main course, which is soup, or as breakfast. this for breakfast maybe maybe a couple of beers and then they go back to sleep for a few hours how are you talking about Athens mainly to Athens Nicole?

What kind of fish is this man with olive oil and lemon? This is a professional quality. The broth is fantastic, you like this dad to make it and he likes to make it himself, yeah, there's a window away, he says, okay, he said, uh, when they were the right age, you guessed something like 14, maybe and he took them to the brothels and he took them to the and he said, you know, you realize that they, you know, they all want to get your money, so you know, get them some drinks, have a good time, go completely crazy while you're young and all, so I know you're going to be a little relaxed about the whole woman thing when you're 50.

Okay, okay, I'm glad I asked. Okay, no, so this is usual, oh sweet, I'll have some of that, oh, my rented. The villa is quite nice but to be honest, the loneliness is worse being in a horrible place when you are alone or in a really nice place that you can't share with anyone. Hello, and the Greek sunset is very typical. The famous Greek sciences. The ships. islands the bowl wow, that looks good, that looks really good, oh man, that's really good, good food makes you happy, very happy, yeah, it opens your heart. There are many countries where they are really very poor, but they take food very seriously. where look here guys you don't go very far right people who are not greek come to the greek islands for the first time come to noxus what should you do here you should drink rocky for sure get drunk on yourself get drunk it's not enough just drink it no yeah don't tell me What did you eat, tell me who you ate with, hey, come on.