The famous 1 kilometre long Heraklion Saturday market (“laiki”) so popular with visitors, has moved to an obscure (for visitors) neighbourhood.
A standard visitors’ destination in Crete\’s main city, the Saturday morning market presented endless arrays of fruit and vegetable stalls, punctuated for flavour by the occasional vendor of local honey, cheeses, nuts and pulses. The stretch of this offering cheap t-shirts and jeans was also a popular bargain-gathering place.
The result though a big loss in the local feel of having a market so close to the centre of the city and the regular metting ground for locals and stallholders alike is a tidier waterfront area by the port. The road has also been resurfaced, pavements paved and planted with trees.
This is all part of the ongoing improvement of Heraklion’s waterfront.
But many will miss the hustle and bustle of the market…getting the weeks fresh produce so easily, from the growers themselves, the social occasion of it all and the inevitable meting with friends or family for coffee afterwards.
