Keeping Nia Vardalos' seat warm on the set of 'My Life in Ruins' at the Temple of Apollo, Delphi

It was one of those Zeus-thrown lightning bolt storms—the kind that makes you question your fate and reach enthusiastically  for your cell phone to dial the $3 per minute call to Mom and Dad, to tell them how much you really do love them, even though you leave them to run back to Greece every year.  Our palpable terror was amplified by the backdrop for this storm, the Temple of Apollo.  Stranded by the fear of being hit by one of those lightning bolts and the revulsion of returning to my hotel room covered in mud, I was huddled under a flimsy tent shelter along with a dozen Greek nicotine addicts. 

Nia Vardalos, on a makeshift folding-chair throne under a slightly wider tent than ours, was probably contemplating if it had been worth her year-long effort to obtain Greek permission to film at the ancient sites of Delphi, Olympia and the Acropolis.  Everyone was muttering under their breath that we had finally incited the wrath of Apollo and must suffer the consequences.  Many, however, especially the non-Greeks, were not aware of the peculiar propensity for Greek lightening to find its human mark.  Mountain goat-herders top the at-risk list. Even wedding parties were not immune, such as the one in the appropriately-named town of Drama. The headline read: Drama in Drama. My absolute favorite, though, had to be the Athenian widow’s story.  Was it one year ago or two that I had morosely laughed at this typical Modern Greek tragedy? An Athenian widow attends her husband’s funeral at Athens’ A Cemetery.  It is raining.  She is carrying a metal-tipped umbrella.  She is struck by lightning and instantly reunited with her dead spouse. 

Only in Greece. 

So this was going through my mind, alongside the calculation of my rapidly decreasing lifespan, courtesy of second-hand smoke inhalation.  The doctor side of me never allowed my complete enjoyment of Greece.  In the end, that was the side that won out.  I couldn’t imagine Zeus taking my life at my beloved Delphi, although flashing through my mind was the possibility that my natural tendency to worship the ancient Goddess and hang out at the lower Temple of Athena site might have finally pissed Apollo off.  In an instant, I went for it and ran--across slippery marbled boulders and down muddied paths--while breathing in the pungent pine tree drenched aroma.  I ran past the make-shift day camp where the actors had attended their luncheon banquet while, we, the peon extras, ate ours out of boxes.  I ran past the portable toilets, which now represented my only claim to movie fame when I inadvertently stopped the production because I needed to pee.  I’m sure that the assistant extra casting director regretted his decision to make me Nia’s stand-in, but, honestly, was it my fault that I most closely matched her height and frame?  He was already irritated by my hanging out with the crew and not with the extras, the same crew that I happened to have met the prior week on Skopelos during the filming of Mamma Mia.

I was rewarded for my muddy dash at the base of Mount Parnassus with a ride back to my hotel room by none other than Alexis Georgoulis’ brother.  Georgoulis is the handsome Greek actor, very popular amongst young Greek women, who co-stars as Nia’s driver.  My Greek girlfriends kept harassing me about getting his picture for them.  That day, it was his brother, the real driver, who was my hero.  As we were bantering back-and-forth in Greek during the short drive down the hill, I reflected on the bizarre sequence of events that had brought me to this moment.  I was certain that Moira (pronounced mee-ra), fate, had, once again, played its role.  Just a few days earlier I had returned to Athens from my yearly visit to my favorite island Skopelos. I was relating to my Greek landlady actress, Mania, the details of my completely unexpected role as an extra in Mamma Mia--about meeting Pierce Brosnan on the beach, about my impressions of Meryl Streep and Colin Firth.  Then we jokingly talked about my upcoming yearly return to Delphi.  I asked Mania if she could remember the last time, or any time, for that matter, that a movie had been filmed there.  She could not.  I had heard from the British camp crew on Skopelos that some of them would be traveling to Athens to set up for My Life in Ruins, but no one mentioned Delphi.  So when I arrived in Delphi and told my Greek friends about my Mamma Mia experience they rather jadedly replied, “Yes.  They are filming a movie here too.”  And so it happened that I ended up as an extra in both movies at my two favorite Greek locations, Skopelos and Delphi, within a couple weeks. And now, after nineteen months, you too are in for a treat! You won’t need to travel far to experience these awesome ruins.

And if the spectacular scenery isn’t enough to keep you entertained, then look for me in the background at Delphi. I’m the one with the long black and white hair, the one trying not to look at the camera.

Dan Buettner has revealed his latest Aegean Blue Zone Member—the Island of Ikaria. For the official scoop go to: http://www.bluezones.com.  For those of you who haven’t yet heard the term blue zones, it refers to geographical locations of populations with the greatest longevity on our planet. Dan postulates eight reasons for Ikarian longevity: 1. Wild greens, 2. Herbal teas, 3. Low sense of time urgency, 4. Daily naps, 5. Mountain living, 6. Strong sense of community, 7. Goat’s milk, and 8. Ikarian diet.

My Athenian-Mykonian girlfriend has been trying to get me to travel to Ikaria for years. She describes it as an island-mountain. I haven’t yet made it there, because it takes a bit longer to reach. These are always the best islands to visit, because you are guaranteed a more authentic experience, especially if you travel off-season. The Greek locations unaffected by tourism are dwindling rapidly—so go before they’re all gone.

If, however, you can’t make it to Ikaria, I can promise that you’ll experience all of these seven longevity gems in any Greek village. That means just about anywhere other than Athens or Thessaloniki. Even popular island destinations such as Mykonos and Santorini become more authentic off-season. Having said that, allow me to share my reflections on what I’ve nicknamed “The Fantastic Eight.”

1.  Wild greens. I already hinted in a previous post about the benefits of horta (“grass”), Greek greens. Served with olive oil and a bit of lemon and salt, you not only reap the benefits of incredible antioxidants but also of phytoestrogens in the horta (see Ten Essential Eats and Drinks post) and  the good fat in the olive oil. What’s important is that the original Greek diet included horta daily. Most of us are unable to go out our back door and collect armfuls of greens each day, as they do in Ikaria. Instead, we must frequent the local farmer’s market and place baskets of greens into our juicers to have the same benefits. For the Ikarians and Greek villagers, this diet is a way of life.

2.  Wild Greek teas and mountain herbs make up the Greek villager’s outdoor medicine cabinet. Again, this is a daily staple. Realize that we have access to all kinds of herbs and teas that have incredible benefits, but in order to reproduce these effects it takes some effort. Unless you are actually living in Greece, the herbs and teas that you obtain in your native country will be different, grown in different soil and different air. But don’t give up; I still drink my tea every day.

3.  Low sense of urgency. I love this one! But I dare you to try to recreate this in our crazy American lives.  Really!! You can learn a low sense of time urgency only by experiencing it.  Then, in order to gain the benefits, you must live it. You might get the hang of it while in Greece. It used to take me three weeks before it would seep in—now it takes the same amount of time as my cross-Atlantic flight. But when you return to the good young USA, get dropped smack dab in the middle of our chaotic, rushed, productivity-driven culture, good luck! Believe me, it is a lifelong practice to incorporate this into a typical American life. It takes a very determined, brave person, to make the kinds of necessary choices to do so. It is absolutely worth it, but realize that you will constantly be going against the American flow! Our society does not know how to step out of linear time, and that’s what this practice requires.

4.  Daily naps—whoo hoo! One of my favorites. I love sleep, and I love living in a culture that values naps. It’s great. It also helps you stay up until 2:00 or 3:00am—typical in Greece. The only way we seem to be able to allow ourselves naps here is if we’re stay-at-home Moms (not many left) so totally exhausted by our newborns that we find ourselves nodding off the second our babies do. My mother almost cried when my four-year old nephew announced that he was no longer taking naps, because that meant the end of her naps too. Can you imagine our country stopping each afternoon for three or four hours just so that we all could take naps? Unfortunately, this practice is disappearing in Greek cities as well.

5.  Mountain living. Exercise, clean mountain air, and time in the sun are all extremely important healthy practices. We are, as usual, backtracking on recommendations about skin exposure and sunlight. Practically every Vitamin D level I’ve checked on my patients has been low. Here’s the deal. Regular exercise is a part of my everyday routine in Greece. I don’t have a car. I only drive a motorbike when I’m on the islands. That means that I walk everywhere. I have passed entire Athenian days walking, sometimes for over eight hours. I love it. (The pollution, however, I could do without—so, as much as possible, stick with clean air.) I never have to think about exercising in Greece. I feel great. I lose ten pounds. I can eat more without worrying about my diet (because it’s a great Mediterranean diet anyway.) But then I return here, and suddenly there are other demands. I actually have to work for a living; I have to drive everywhere (it would be a bit difficult to walk eighty miles each day). Exercise becomes a chore, something else that I have to fit into my already overcrowded day. Houston, we have a problem here.

6.  Strong sense of community. Another one of my favorites. For those of you who have been following me on my feminine health website, you are aware that community is a feminine quality; therefore, by definition, we are community-deficient in our culture. Yet we know how important a strong sense of community is to our health and our sanity. When will we value interdependence as much as independence? How many years are you willing to trade off of your life expectancy in exchange for your independence? A word of caution, though, if you value independence and anonymity then you are going to be very very uncomfortable in Greece!

7.  Goat milk. Yeah! All I’ve got to say is try the fresh goat cheese on Skyros. Yummy. And for you carnivores out there—goat’s meat is pretty darn good too (don’t know if it has special health benefits, though.)

8.  Ikarian Diet. This is probably one of the easiest of the seven to adopt. Loads have been written on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Just remember that you need to consider where and how the food is being grown. Obviously, organic and local are musts, but it’s also important to consider the actual growing conditions. What elements are in the soil? Where is it being grown?

That’s my take on The Fantastic Eight. I would love to hear your ideas. Have you been using any of The Fantastic Eight in your life? Those of us who can’t immediately relocate to a Grecian mountain village are all ears.

Have a happy nap after leisurely gathering with friends over a snack of mountain tea, horta and goat’s milk. (My God, that sounds awful! On second thought, just go for some of my favorite foods and throw in some ouzo…)

It is not only unusual foods that make Greek meals interesting. Here are ten things that can assist you in staying on that diet:

1.  Carnivorous wasps:   Most people think that bees and wasps just go for lemonada, the sweet carbonated lemonade drink, but Greek wasps prefer meat or fish. Their persistence is quite entertaining. The Greeks have come up will all kinds of solutions, such as burning ground coffee. Basically, you can’t win. If your food is not already smoked from the cigarettes it will be from the burning coffee. The carnivorous wasp story winner goes to an unlucky worker on the set of Mamma Mia at Agios Ioannis. The wasps were determined to take down as many of our plastic-boxed lunches as possible. As we were driving along the serpentine sea-cliff road back to town a screaming ambulance sped by in the opposite direction. We later learned that one poor soul had battled a wasp for his lunch and lost. Actually both he and the wasp lost when he swallowed it whole. Even worse, he was allergic. So, if they say that no living thing was injured during the making of Mamma Mia, they’re lying. (See Pic*)

2.  Location, location, location:  The Greeks are not too particular about where they place those outside tables and chairs. Some tavernas are set up in the middle of the street, literally. One of my favorite Mamma Mia behind-the-scenes stories is about the unusual way in which the camp trailers crossed over mainland Greece to the harbor at Volos. Suffice it to say that they took a wrong turn somewhere in the mountains near Delphi and found themselves on a road less traveled, so less traveled that the taverna workers had to remove every table, chair and customer from the road.

3.  Weather:  For a typical weather story see Red Poppies, Greek Easter. About once every other year, we get September thunderstorms on Skopelos. We’re talking bad enough that grandmothers get washed into the sea and motorbikes have to be tied to the sides of buildings. The Greeks, however, are prepared. They encase entire tavernas in plastic wrap. It almost works. The only problem they haven’t yet solved is the river under the tables. As long as you remember to keep your feet on the chair stretcher next to you, you’ll do fine. Otherwise, you might end up in the sea with Yiayia.

4.  The Eccentric Locals:  Beside the obvious impossibility of anonymity (I swear they’d all come join your table if one could make it big enough!) you may have to contend with some rather unusual sites. One of my favorites was the guy walking down the street carrying a white toilet.

5.  Cats:  The wasps are not the only native carnivores. You’ve never seen cats dine like this. They don’t touch anything that isn’t fish or meat, even if they’re starving. The situation is, however, greatly improved from its cat-Zambian past. Some brave Great Britain vets snuck their way in and spayed a bunch of cats, despite local protests. This helped solve the cat overgrowth problem, but back-fired with the rat and mice populations.
When will we learn that it's not nice to fool Mother Nature?

6.  Cigarette Smoke:  The Greek #1 form of birth control also acts as an appetite suppressant—both for smokers and non-smokers. Two, two, two benefits in one. I can’t believe that they actually passed a law that divides inside restaurant space between smokers and non-smokers. You can imagine how effective that one is.

7.  Neighbor Proximity:  As hinted before, the Greeks would all sit at one table if given the chance. If you treasure peace, quiet, alone time, then how the heck did you end up in Greece? I mean, what were you thinking?

8.  Natural Demolitions:  You have entered the land of natural decay. Everything, previously-living and not, degrades in this country. You can’t walk down a Greek street without running into a carcass of some sort. Even the buildings decompose. The Greeks are really great about allowing whatever they don’t possess to rot. My favorite was in the small picturesque harbor of Agnondas, known for its fresh fish. I was enjoying a beautiful sunset with a Dutch friend, had just finished a perfect saganaki midia and RUMBLE…BANG! CRASH!! Were we having another earthquake? No, the small dilapidated single-room abandoned house across the street finally took its last breath, shuddered and collapsed. No one blinked an eye--no one, that is, other than the two of us.

9.  Unwanted Stares:  This goes along with #4, #6, and #7. Put them all together and you get eccentric Greeks walking down the street carrying white toilets while smoking cigarettes, staring at you, and looking for empty seats at your table…an everyday occurrence. Welcome to Greece!

10.  Uncomfortable Chairs:  My back, butt and arms ache already… I ran across my Greek chair fantasy one day, in a back abandoned lot on Skopelos…

Happy Dieting!



*Wasp picture courtesy of my friend Loes

I’m all for equal opportunity. The following are my Greek Food and Drink Faves:

1.   Saganaki Midia:  Mussels in a tomato and feta cheese wine sauce. Yummy! Not to be confused with plain saganaki, which is fried cheese, or saganaki garides, which contains prawns instead of mussels. But if you make a mistake, don’t worry; you just can’t go wrong here!

2.  Kolokithokeftedes:  That’s a mouthful in more ways than one! These are a zucchini-herb mixture formed into balls and fried.

3.  Greek Yogurt with Skopelos honey, walnuts and fruit: Yes, you no longer have to travel to Greece to experience Greek yogurt, especially if you have a Trader Joe’s close by. If you want, however, to experience the typical Greek yogurt, we’re talking sheep’s milk. And you’ll just have to travel to the Mamma Mia Island to sample Skopelos honey…pine tree flavored…no kidding! (See pic)

4.  Greek Salad- Horiatiki: Okay, this may be boring, but it’s close to perfect. You get a combination of veggies—usually tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and perhaps green peppers with very healthy Greek olives and great protein, feta cheese. It even works for vegetarians, and is usually an economical choice.

5.  Beets with Skordalia: I know that I already mentioned this one, but it is a favorite. The garlic is great for the immune system too.

6.  Favorite ouzos: I have two. Plomariou and Barbayannis. Both are produced in the town of Ploumari on Lesvos. There’s nothing more to say; you’ll just have to try them. If you can have only one meze (appetizer) with ouzo, then ask for a bowl of great-tasting Greek olives. If you want protein (probably a good idea) then order #7.

7.  Fresh grilled octopus: This plus a glass of ouzo is just about as close as one can get to heaven.

8.  Horta: A Greek food staple, horta literally means “grass.” It’s boiled dandelion greens. There are many varieties—some more bitter, some less so. This dish is served with lemon, olive oil and salt. Women in particular benefit from this extremely healthy dish, because it is rich in phytoestrogens (weak naturally-occurring plant compounds that bind to estrogen receptor sites, thus providing some protection against the effects of stronger estrogens.) The previously low incidence of breast cancer in Greek women was attributed to the high intake of olive oil, but I wouldn’t be surprised if horta played an important role. Are you seeing a pattern?  I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the original Mediterranean diets are the best!

9.  Fried zucchini withTzatziki: Okay. This one’s not so healthy, but wow is it yummy. Realize that there are as many different tzatzikis as there are Greek cooks. I like mine with—yes, you guessed it—lots of garlic and lemon (not vinegar). For those of you who haven’t yet tried it, this is a thick yogurt dip (the Greeks call all their dips salads, salata) with garlic, lemon or vinegar, cucumber, olive oil and dill.

10.  Favorite dessert: Oh, I have so many, but if I had to pick one, it would be the loukoumades with Skopelos honey. Sorry, I’m biased.  I can’t remember the name of the particular zacharoplastio (sweet shop), but if you’re headed to Skopelos, send me an e-mail and I’ll give you directions. Loukoumades are large donut holes.  My favorite ones are huge, the gigantic variety to match the big beans, gigantes…oops that’s #11, and I committed to just ten.

It’s no surprise that my Fave List is much longer than my Warning List. Hope these show up on your Fave List too!