Iraklio, Capital of Crete

Most people wouldn't know of Iraklio on the Greek island of Crete, even though it is Greece's six largest city. The reason people know this city is because it is the gateway to the Palace of Knossos, an ancient Minoan ruin site.

But I actually like Iraklio not because it's modern and busy. I just like the look of it and there are lots of things to discover around the town. I loved walking down to the port taking photos in the afternoon then walking back to the city centre where so many people were shopping with full bags of clothes and shoes.

To get to Iraklio, we had driven from Hania further along the coast to the east. Of all the places in Greece, Iraklio was the most difficult to find accommodation. The one way traffic system didn't help as we couldn't actually stop to check out the few hotels in town. We ended up driving out the coast to the local beach at Gournes to find a hotel.

Knossos is a pretty amazing site, though I was more impressed by the Acropolis in Athens and the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi. Unfortunately, there were too many tour groups at such a small place and they all arrived at the same time and were of different nationalities. I felt like I was in the middle of the market as I couldn't relax. The tour groups took over with their tour guides explaining the site and standing in front of the ruin sites. In fact, some of the rooms required us to queue in the hot sun to get in. Like some other places in the world, including Vietnam, tourism needs to regulated in Knossos. I've never seen so many busloads of package tourists in my life.

A Viet Corner in Iraklio

While in Crete, I was wandering around Iraklio port and the shopping areas in the afternoon, the day before we left. I thought I saw something familiar from the corner of my eye and I turned my head to see an Asian restaurant called Lee's Asian Fast Food. Having been away from home almost 5 weeks, even though I was adapting quite well to feta cheese and other Greek food, what I missed the most was Asian food. I walked over toward the restaurant and sat down to order fried rice which looked really good in the photo.

The waiter was Greek and I thought this would be a Chinese restaurant, which didn't bother me because I love Chinese food as much as Vietnamese food. While waiting, I heard someone speaking in Vietnamese behind me and I turned around. It was a little girl talking to her parents. I couldn't believe that I would meet a Vietnamese family in a place like Iraklio, so far from our homeland. I'd hardly seen any other Asians in some parts of Greece. I started up a conversation with them and it turned out they're from Tra Vinh, a southern city of Vietnam. They moved from there to Holland about 10 years ago but had moved over to Greece in the last 3 years.

Following what they told me, life in Holland was getting more expensive and hard for them, so they decided to move to Greece hoping for an easier life and they're happy with it now. Lee's is the only Asian restaurant in town(I think) so they don't really have much competition. I also noticed that most of the other customers were western people so I gathered that there are not many Asians in Iraklio. They also said that they have to buy lots of their ingredients from Germany as they don't have lots of choices in Iraklio. They had to serve fusion Vietnamese - Chinese food as not many people are familiar with Viet Nam and its food.

The food itself, fried rice and spring rolls, was actually pretty good.

Ps: I can't upload any photos from Lee's restaurant as I lost them all due to virus attack on my hard drive.