This was the first time I experienced ruins outside of Mexico, just after seeing the Parthenon in Athens, that was really fun for me.  The city of Athens, though interesting in it's own right, did not have the charm of Irakleion.  It's so much more accessible and wandering through the ruins of Knossos, you get the sense that humans settled here.  There is something so much more tangible about that, a promethean exercise in contrast to the Athenian Acropolis.  A fresco, in particular, stands out in my memory.  It depicts two figures with a bull.  The colors are so vibrant-lending it the look of a graphic novel-that it lends this place a glimpse into what occupied Minoan culture and thought.  I remember it like it was yesterday.