It seems only fitting to open discussion of Greece with my whirlwind couple of days in Athens.

I was only in town for 4 days, hardly enough for one of the world’s oldest and most important capitals of culture. Almost every day was spent running around buying maps (exciting news from Crete, soon!) or taking daytrips to ancient historic sites or trying to make time to see as much of the Acropolis as possible.

A huge part of making this all work, then, was staying at Athens Backpackers. I actually stayed at their second location, the Athens Studios. Getting into town late my first night, I was loving the fact that Studios was only about 10 minutes from the Airport Bus drop-off.

Also huge for me was their cafe, ‘Fish N’ Chips’, which saved me from having to go for a late-nite wander with a belly screaming for a bit of nutrition.

Had I planned a bit better, though, I could have just grabbed some groceries on the way to cook up in the kitchenettes that all of the ‘deluxe dorms’ have. No worries, though, because between home-cooked dinners and morning tea/coffee I definitely got some good use out of this.

In fact, whenever possible I started my day with a quick nescafe on the dorm balcony. Much better than laying in bed listening to the snoring Greek/Brit/Japanese/everyothernationalityIseemtoshareadormwith, am I right?

Though I never took full advantage of the SportsBar, this was also where the basic complimentary breakfast was served each morning.

My one real complaint about Athens Backpackers: no lockers in the dorms. They do offer secure luggage storage downstairs, for 3 Euro/ day. I just thought it was strange (and one of my dorm-mates agreed, in fact) that given all the other amenities that are built into the place, that one was oddly missing.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed it. A great location just near the Acropolis and New Acropolis Museum, free breakfast (unusual, to my experience, in European hostels), and just about all the amenities (food/beer/laundry/internet/kitchen/tours) one could want for a few days in a city.

The real shame? That I didn’t have more time to spend in Athens! I’m planning on spending nearly a week there as I pass through on the way out of the country, though, and I’ve already sent off a booking to stay here again.

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Note: While my stay in Athens was sponsored by Athens Backpackers, all opinion expressed here are my own.