First: if it’s a long weekend, don’t take the bus to go south. Take the train. The bus can – and will – end up in a traffic jam 🙂 Instead of having some time in Milan to go shopping, I juuuust made it to the airport by getting off the bus earlier than planned.
Second: A 24-hour reception doesn’t mean checking in is possible anytime. I found a hostel with 24 hour reception in Thessaloniki.. however, after booking, reading the questions it became clear that they don’t allow people to check in to dorms after midnight ‘because that would disturb the other guests’. They did offer me to book a private room – which would cost more than my whole 3 nights there. No, thanks. I booked a different hostel for just the first night 😉 And next time, I’ll just walk in and hangout in the common room. Nobody cares.
Thessaloniki itself was nice, the coffee was still great, and the pier looked exactly the same and was just much more crowded during the day than at 6 am. Memories.
