Sleeping with strangers

The hostel concept is a wonderful idea for budget travels but the bottom line is that if you stay in a dorm you’re bound to sleep with strangers and we can’t help but remember our mothers... “don’t talk to strangers” they would say when we were little... what would they say now that we’re sleeping with them!

Acceptable or not for them, this is how backpackers roll. So we roll this way too until we land in Athens Backpackers. Lovely hostel, one of the best we ever stayed at. Also very conveniently located and with an amazing roof terrace overlooking the pantheon. We hear this is where we need to see the sunset so as we arrive we drop our bags in our dorm (wondering who will sleep with) and run to the roof. It was beautiful... and most importantly it had many other travellers who we interact with.

Enters Jason into our life. Jason is Canadian, very warm and in search of his greek roots. We immediately connect and spend the rest of the sunset chatting along, exchanging tips and drinking beers and ouzas. Later in the night, after having a deli moussaka dinner with Jason and Matt, we go back to our dorm. No one is there so we happily jump to the upper beds (it always better for girls to sleep in the upper beds we think) and crush.

At about 2am the strangers arrive to sleep with us. They are two men, very noisy and they are cold so they turn the AC off... these last two do not go well with Flor. She obviously awakes. After each of our strangers find their sleep, she thinks she can fall asleep again only to find a few minutes later the loudest battle of the snores between our two strangers... noooooooo!!!! Unable to fall back at sleep Flor leaves the room with her pillow and goes into the outside sofa... finally some peace and quiet zzzzzZZzzzz Lesson learnt.

*Note to self: always go for private dorms if possible or try to know who you’re sleeping with... not so sure we can make this happen so scratch that... get ear plugs!