Day 1. Heraklion – Knossos Palace and Old Town

The island on the map doesn't seem so big, but when you start making up a route, it turns out that between "let's see the palace in the morning, then go to the beach, and look at another city in the evening" and reality lie kilometers of roads, mountain serpentines and my eternal optimism. In the end, I decided not to try to see absolutely everything, but made up a five-day itinerary that combined ancient cities, beautiful beaches, mountain roads, and several places I really wanted to get to.

I took a car and booked accommodation in advance, because in Crete a car greatly expands the possibilities. You can also travel by public transport, but I wanted to choose for myself where to stay and where to drive further, because sometimes it's a random observation deck that turns out to be more interesting than the point that you marked on the map for a week. The route turned out to be quite dense, but in five days I managed to see completely different Crete – historical, mountainous, beach and the lazy one, where you just want to sit by the sea and not go anywhere.

Fragments of the Palace of Knossos recreated from the ruins

The archaeological complex of Knossos

I decided to start the first day in Heraklion, because it didn't seem like the most sensible decision to fly to Crete and immediately leave somewhere on the other side of the island. After getting the car, I went towards the Palace of Knossos, which is located very close to Heraklion. And it was here that I realized for the first time that photographs do not convey the scale of a place: when you walk among the ancient walls and imagine that an entire Minoan civilization existed here several thousand years ago, you begin to look at an ordinary vacation a little differently.

The Palace of Knossos turned out to be exactly the attraction for which it is worth arriving early. Quite a lot of people come here during the day, so it's much more pleasant to walk in the morning, especially if you don't want to spend half the tour in line or look for a place where you can take a photo normally. I honestly tried to listen carefully about the history of the palace, but from time to time I caught myself thinking that I was standing and just looking at the stones, trying to imagine what it all looked like in ancient times.

Kules Fortress

After Knossos, I returned to Heraklion and went for a walk in a good mood. I looked at the Venetian Harbor, the Kules Fortress, strolled along August 25th Street and looked at Lviv Square. After the historical ruins, it was especially pleasant to just sit in a cafe, drink coffee and watch the city.

The Venetian Fortress in Heraklion

I also went to the Venetian Fortress, which is located 9 kilometers west of Heraklion. After all, it's convenient to travel by car, I didn't have to look for a taxi and negotiate with the driver in a foreign language. I feel confident and enjoy the long-awaited vacation.

By the evening, I realized that the first day had been quite eventful, although according to the plan it seemed that I would only see a few places. It was then that I first remembered my favorite rule of car travel: if the navigator says it's twenty minutes to the next point, it doesn't mean at all that I'll arrive there in twenty minutes.