Anna and Petras are among the best hosts I have encountered. Their apartment is next door on the same floor, and they are friendly, intelligent, kind, and generous without being overbearing. I arrived on a hot day, and Anna immediately served me a Greek frappe and a bowl of Greek yogurt with strawberry jam. When Petras arrived a little later, we sat on the balcony and had a long, interesting conversation covering lots of topics. On the final night I was there, we visited again over a nice dinner on the balcony.

The apartment was perfect for me—a nice, big, comfortable bed with good quality sheets, a TV with BBC news, an Internet connection which tested at 13.75 Mbps download speed (but which sometimes slows down in the evening—either because the TV is also served via the Internet or because others are on the Internet at the same time), a large, modern bathroom (furnished with shampoos, soaps, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other items that a person might need and beyond what is usually offered), a roomy kitchen (with a single-pan induction burner, a toaster-oven rather than a conventional one, an electric grill, several types of coffee makers, and a refrigerator which Anna had stocked with eggs, milk, orange juice, butter, bread, yogurt, etc., so that I had plenty for making my own breakfast each morning), and the comfortable balcony (with lush green plants and sofa and chairs with stuffed cushions which serves as the “living room” since there is only the bed and a small chair/desk inside the apartment).

Everything is high quality—the tile, the shower, the counter tops, etc. The entire apartment has artwork on the walls and decorative items on the shelves and table tops. The patio door has a built-in metal blind to be lowered at night to keep the light out each morning. There are lamps that allow more mellow lighting and ceiling lights which provide brighter light when needed. There is an a/c for when it gets hot (and which can be run in fan mode to block out any hallway noises or traffic noises from nearby rather than using earplugs).

The location of the apartment worked well for me. I arrived in Athens by bus, and it was easy to get there from the Loisson Station. Then, as I explored the city, it was close enough that I walked to the center of town several days. And the metro stop is only about 5 blocks away for when I wanted to return that way. The same nearby metro stop was the line that went to the airport for my departure. Go 3 blocks to the left as you leave the building and 6 blocks to the right to find a perfect neighborhood square surrounded by local shops and filled with sidewalk cafes. I spent every evening there!