Crete. Walking tour of Heraklion. May Day demonstration.

On the first day we didn’t want to go anywhere far (after all, a sleepless night at an altitude of 10 km) and we decided to go to the Palace of Knossos by bus. This palace is not far from Heraklion, so you can use a regular city bus.

True, with 1 transfer, but it’s not scary. The bus in Greece costs €1.5. About 2 times more expensive than in Moscow. The bus did not take us to the city center, since it was May Day. And the Greeks went out to demonstrate. It is interesting that in Greece, as it used to be in the USSR ( link ), there is a May Day demonstration. In Russia, these demonstrations have long been cancelled.

And we had to walk for quite a long time. That’s how our walking tour of the city began. However, the shops were also closed – it was a holiday after all. We had to enjoy the demonstration and the Greek “OMON”.

We walked to the center. All bus routes intersect there at the square near Astoria.

As a result, we finally got to the palace, but they wouldn’t let us in, since museums don’t work on holidays either. In general, work in Greece is a separate topic. There is the so-called siesta. During the hottest time of the day, no one works for 4 hours. To be honest, not exactly “no one”. Some people still work. And even I wouldn’t call siesta a mass phenomenon.

We had lunch at a local restaurant. The food was excellent, but we didn’t know that the portions were very large and half of the food was left. At the end, the establishment poured us some raki. It turned out later that this is a rule of good manners there. And if guests are not poured drinks, then it is not a respectable establishment.

Below are just some photos with views of Heraklion.

The next day we rented a car and finally got to the Palace of Knossos .