“When I started twenty years ago I was a weirdo. Very little was known about yoga in Greece except from those who traveled abroad,” Kapetaniou says. “Yoga was for the educated who had a bit of money to spare, but now it has become a necessity with our stressful way of life,” Kapetaniou says. “Doctors here are starting to prescribe yoga.” The studio also offers Shiatsu massage and Sotai healing, movement which makes use of isotonic resistance, similar to the process used in physical therapies.

“At first, the media had a negative reaction about yoga. The official Church of Greece branded it as a satanic practice,” Kapetaniou says. “We’re still on the black list along with homeopathic doctors and acupuncturists, but now people are saying who cares what the Church believes.”

The Aion Center adds a few unique twists to the usual yoga, body-healing studio. This center offers integral yoga, melding hatha yoga with meditation, as well as self-knowledge courses and a class called Spada Dinamica. Spada Dinamica has its origin in the myth of Excalibur, allowing participants to express the qualities of the cross, the spade, and other symbols through meditation and various exercises using actual spades.

Organic food outlets are opening even faster than yoga studios throughout Athens. Ecological Garden, a small store in the trendy shopping and dining district of Kolonaki, was the pioneer, debuting in 1992. “There was quite a primitive reaction when we opened. It was considered madness,” says shopowner Panagiotis Milehous. The Ecological Garden has a modest selection of organic fruits and vegetables as well as packaged organic foods from around the world.

Today, there are a couple of larger natural food chains in Athens, namely Green Farm and Biological Circle. Green Farm offers everything from yogi teas to organic cat food. Aside from organic fruits and vegetables, Green Farm sells free-range meats, “American style” organic coffee, and recycled paper products.

Biological Circle, a clean, well-organized health food store, features more than ninety percent organic stock. Less than one percent of food products grown in Greece are cultivated organically, according to Periklis Livas, the store manager. Consequently, only half of the products sold are from Greece. The rest are imported from other European Union countries, including soy products from the Netherlands and pasta and sauces from Italy.

The store works with Therapia, a homeopathic clinic run by the disciples of Vithoulkas, the father of homeopathy in Greece. Vithoulkas established the Athenian School of Homeopathic Medicine in 1970. The school, since renamed the Center of Homeopathic Medicine, is devoted exclusively to the teaching of medical doctors.

While organic and natural food stores are spreading across Athens, the city is home to just one vegetarian restaurant, Eden. Located in the Plaka, the old Turkish quarter, situated below the Acropolis, Eden became the first vegetarian restaurant in Athens when it opened its doors in 1981. Though it’s located in the tourist area, the locals have been keeping the business alive.

“People come here out of curiosity, something different,” says owner Timos Papadopoulos. “There are not too many vegetarians in Greece.” Papadopoulos was a student in Boston when he tried his first vegetarian restaurant. His love of the vegetarian food inspired him to open Eden.

Papadopoulos notes that many notable ancient Greek thinkers favored a vegetarian diet, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Famed philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras also encouraged vegetarianism. Although Eden failed in the beginning, it has since grown in popularity. In the beginning, people used to poke fun, making comments like “We’re going to graze at Eden,” says Papadopoulos. Though menu items like soy souvlaki and meatless moussaka, are far from conventional, many of the people I met in Athens had tried the food at Eden and enjoyed it.

Finding some of these health outlets still takes some digging, and the lifestyle is further from the mainstream than most Western countries. It may be a while before Athens qualifies as a paradise for healthy living, but the city and its people are actively taking steps along that path.

address book

Aion Yoga Center, (+30) 210 223 4393, www.gisi.gr/aion/02en.html

Biological Circle, (+30) 210 382 1800

Center for Harmonious Living, (+30) 210 681 8151, www.holisticharmony.com

Cocoon Urban Spa, (+30) 210 656 1975

Diodos Center, (+30) 210 362 1301

Divani Apollon Palace & Spa, (+30) 210 891 1100, www.divanis.gr/hotels/index.php?ppnav=9&shownav=9

Eden Restaurant, (+30) 210 324 8858, www.edenvegetarian.gr

Green Farm, (+30) 210 36 14 001

Hilton Athens, (+30) 210 728 1000, www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=ATHHITW

Hotel Grande Bretagne, (+30) 210 333 0000, www.grandebretagne.gr

Jenny Colebourne’s Illium Center of Light, (+30) 210 723 1397, illium@hol.gr

La Prairie, (+30) 10 360 14 50,

Lotus Yoga Center, (+30) 210 801 5292

NYSY Studios, (+30) 693 421 2039, www.nysystudios.com

Therapia, (+30) 210 937 0624

July/August 2004

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