Q&A with Simon Reeve
Why Greece?
Obviously Greece has been in the news regularly in recent months and years because of first the economic crisis that has afflicted the country and more recently the migrant and refugee crisis. I’ve been going there as a tourist for years, like millions of other Brits, and I really wanted to try and learn a bit more about both those situations and try to understand what’s going on. But travelling around Greece also introduced me to many more stories about the country and to some of the recent history which has helped to shape the nation and the way Greeks think and perhaps even behave.
What was your favourite experience?
Crete was a revelation in many ways because it was only through talking to villagers there that I really started to fully realise how the German occupation during the Second World War shaped the way Cretans, and many Greeks, feel about recent German demands for austerity. Travelling through the islands and across the mainland there was revelation after revelation, whether it was the thoughts of one of the last sponge-divers in the Med, or the national pride of a priest who is president of the local gun club, or the desperation of migrant farm workers - I found the country endlessly surprising and fascinating.
What was your most shocking experience on the trip?
The most obviously shocking situation was when we were in Athens and some young anarchists, we think, were threatening to shoot us in the head unless we showed them our camera tapes. It took the very cool head of our magnificent cameraman Jonathan Young to get us out of that situation with our limbs intact.
But what surprised me most about the trip was learning about the economic crisis. It is completely incredible. A country seen as the bedrock of Western civilisation now finds itself in an economic black hole. How on earth has that happened? I’m not an economist, but in the programmes I do try to understand how it’s happened. I think the Greeks have got a real point when they say that Europe and bankers share some of the responsibility for this situation, and I think the Greek elite have really let their country down in recent decades, not paying taxes, not providing leadership, and not telling the public what’s been going on.
Are you still learning new things about travelling?
Endlessly. It’s the most extraordinary privilege to travel our world because there is so much to learn every day on every journey. My travels and adventures, and of course the programmes we make, have been an enormous source of learning and understanding for me.
