Okay, I’ve been in four additional hotels since my last ranting spell, so I guess I’ll do a brief overview of those.
In Rome, I stayed in the Hotel Saturnia, which is about a ten-minute walk south of Roma Termini, Rome’s main train station. I had read that it was in a dangerous neighborhood, but in my eight-night stay, it seemed alright to me. When I got to the hotel, they told me that there was a problem with my room. They could put me in a room without a bathroom and give me a parial refund or call around and find me another hotel. I went with the refund and the room was fine. The hotel’s breakfast was pretty good, with some very nice cappuccino. The location was perfect as it was a short walking-distance to everything I wanted to see except Vatican City. Also, the staff was extremely nice. They also had a room free when I hit my snafu on the way to Bari and had to stay in Rome for an unexpected extra day. The price was right, around $60/night, which is awesome in Rome. There was no internet, but wifi was easily pirated, so I had access the entire time. Overall, I have to say that it was a pretty good stay.
In Athens, I went all out. I stayed at the Best Western Pythagorion. Okay, maybe that’s not exactly all out, but it was a step up. The area around this hotel really was sketchy, as I was almost always hit up by a prostitute/pimp when I ventured out after dark. Other than that, though the area was good because, like in Rome, the hotel was centrally located and I could walk everywhere. As far as the hotel itself, the rooms were large and clean and the staff was incredibly helpful. If they could just take the hotel and move it a few blocks west, it would be perfect.
From Best Western, I stayed in a Holiday Inn in Thessaloniki. (Note: I’ve stayed in hundreds of hotels in my lifetime, but to the best of my recollection, this is the first Holiday Inn I’ve ever stayed in. Go figure.) This hotel was very conveniently located, as Holiday Inns typically are, I suppose. There were problems, though. The breakfast and internet were both outrageously expensive. Since I found a café nearby at the train station that provided food for cheap and wifi for free, I just opted to frequent that place when the need arose. Also, the staff was rather unfriendly, which was a little surprising considering the great hotel staffs that I had encountered all over Europe, even in the cheapest of hotels. Given a chance, I’d probably stay somewhere else next time.
Finally, in Sofia, I stayed at the Maxim Hotel. No, it had nothing to do with the magazine. It is a reasonably priced hotel that is located about a ten-minute walk from the train station. Here, the staff was very, very friendly and helpful. The breakfast was free and, umm, interesting. Every morning, I had some slice of a pork-based breakfast meat and an ice cold fried egg, which wasn’t all that bad, all things considered. As I mentioned in a prior post, there was a Dunkin Donuts across the street, which I LOVED. Everything that I was aware of in Sofia was close enough that I could walk to it within thirty minutes. There was no internet, but I knew that going in and Sofia turned out to be a pretty good city for free public wifi anyway, so it wasn’t a huge deal. At checkout, I had to pay in cash because the hotel’s card reader wasn’t working, so I had to go out to an ATM and get as exact change as I could, because I didn’t want to be left with any Bulgarian Lev, and paid the bill. It was about $60/night, which was satisfactory. I left feeling pretty happy about the Maxim Hotel.
Okay, that’s it or this hotel post. My next hotel, in Belgrade, is rather expensive (for me), but is across the street from the train station and offers free long distance calls to anywhere in the world, so some of you may hear (or have heard by the time this gets posted) from me while I’m there.
Toodles . . .
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