After driving all day to Delphi (which had been our previous stop) and back, the bus ride to Athens was slightly painful even if we had a feeling of relief for not having to negotiate highway shoulders or beeping trucks.

Of course when we arrived in the Greek capital it was raining yet again! Luckily it was fairly easy to get from the bus station to our youth hostel and we were only slightly soaked when we arrived.

We knew the hostel was going to be in a bit of a dodgy area because we had checked it out online through reviews on hostelworld.com. I had also been warned by multiple people that Athens was a chaotic and dirty city so I was prepared for anything – or so I thought (a little foreshadowing for you there). Just as a side note, the hostel website has been a godsend while travelling and also is an assurance that you usually get good service because you have a way to complain about their business i.e. posting comments on hostelworld.com. Unfortunately this time we chose to book through the hostel's website and not hostelworld (more foreshadowing).

In any case the area did prove to be a bit interesting, with some working women around, but it was centrally located and the room was clean so we settled in.

Of course in Athens you have got to see the Acropolis, which was built in the 5th century BC, and it is as impressive as I imagined from photos I had seen. What I didn't realise is that it is part of an entire complex that also includes the Parthenon (also known as the Temple of Athena Parthenos), the Acropolis Museum, the Temple of Athena Nike (which originally housed a statue of the goddess of Nike, the goddess of victory) and the Erechtheion, which is a building named after a snake-bodied hero. The view from the Acropolis is stunning as it is built on one of the hills that dot the city.

We were lucky. A ticket to visit all of these sites can cost more than €12 but on Sundays it's free!! We arrived on a Saturday (just by sheer luck) so we were ready on Sunday to get all the free sightseeing in that we could. After visiting the Acropolis we ventured down from the great heights of civilisation to see how regular folk survived. This included the Agora or marketplace, an administration centre frequented by some of the great Greek debaters.

Athens is also considered the birthplace of democracy and on display in the Agora Museum is the first voting tab along with other artefacts that helped develop today's institutions of democracy.

Unfortunately, our free day came to an end before we could explore any more of the ruins in Athens, so we decided to wander through an area near the Agora called Plaka.

This is a great area that's, well, definitely touristy. But it's full of life and enjoyable if you understand what you're getting – shops filled with Greek souvenirs.

After wandering for a bit we decided to head to the top of Philopappos Hill for an amazing view of the Acropolis at sunset. It was beautiful. And I have to say, for a city filled with six million people – half of Greece's population – there is a fair amount of open space.

Too bad we didn't head for the hills a little earlier because there was plenty of wandering that could be done. After watching the sunset and taking the mandatory photos of the Acropolis in evening light, which is almost more impressive than during the day, we headed back to the hostel for a break and to complete some administration.

It has been amazing how much time we have spent planning, buying tickets and researching this trip. Just about every three days or so we have to devote a few hours or more to figuring out what we are going to do, where to stay, and how to get to our next destination.

After figuring out how we would get to the Island of Rhodes and then to Turkey, we headed for Exarhia, a neighbourhood that is hustling and bustling with young people and restaurants filled to capacity every night of the week.

Unfortunately, the 'no smoking inside' rule has not come into effect in Greece so it does get overwhelming sometimes. There also seems to be a strange phenomenon whereby the food you order is cooked at a different locale altogether and then brought from there to the restaurant. Not sure what that's about, but we were definitely impressed by the food and enjoyed all the fresh vegetables.

After trying out the local ouzo (a licorice drink that turns cloudy when you add water to it), we decided to head back to the hostel. It was about 1 a.m. (I know, party animals!) and after getting a little lost on our way back we finally ended up at the hostel 45 minutes later. We weren't the only ones turning in for the night ... or a couple of hours. Entering the hostel right before us was a "couple", who at first tried to speak to the reception guy in Greek (he was American). Not getting anywhere, the woman spoke in English and asked if he had a room to rent for a couple of hours! My travel buddy and I stood behind them waiting for our room key – I was actually waiting for the reception guy to scoff at her and throw them out. Ha! For €20, even without identification, the "couple" could rent a room for a few hours!

Neither of us could believe our ears! This hostel was a member of Hostelling International so you'd think they would have some standards. When we confronted the reception guy and asked him why he gave them a room: "Oh well, you know ... um ... I don't know for a fact she's a working girl."

After waiting for a better response we eventually gave up and, well, we couldn't really move out that night – it was already 2 a.m. We decided to confront the manager the next morning about it. After a fitful night, we awoke to a different person working the desk who gave us even more pathetic answers: "We can't ask them if they are 'professionals'," she said. "And many times couples need privacy from their parents' homes."

Really? Neither my travel buddy nor I ever heard of anywhere that rents rooms for a couple of hours (and at the wee hours of the morning without asking for any identification). And when I want to stay in a room for two nights, I have to produce a passport, credit card, and more than €60. She finally called the manager who had nothing more to say other than how did we know? How did we decide that she was a professional?

We tried to salvage a day out of it because we were leaving that night on a ferry to the Island of Rhodes. We decided to try to get a bit of an education by visiting the National Archaeological Museum. When we got there though, the hours had been reduced to between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. (something to do with striking civil servants). So giving up on that, we went to the horseshoe-shaped Panathenaic Stadium, which was the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. It fits about 60,000 spectators and also served as the finish line for the marathon in the 2004 games. Unfortunately we couldn't enter, so we had to gaze longingly from the tarmac.

From there it was an easy walk to the Temple of Zeus which was the largest temple ever built in Greece, even though it took ages to complete. After numerous changes in the rulers, the temple was finally completed by Emperor Hadrian in 131 AD and of course to mark his territory he also had to build an accompanying arch.

Afterwards we tried to find Keramikos, a large cemetery filled with the tombs of important citizens of ancient Athens. It was interesting enough just to see the monuments that would have been graves, but also dotting the cemetery and much to my travel buddy's chagrin, were little tortoises. It became my little game to spot the reptiles even as my travel buddy tried to draw my attention to the ancient ruins.

After that there was just enough time to grab some snacks for the ferry, our backpacks and head to the port. It was easy to jump on the underground to get there, but just like Patras, it was another hike to the actual boat. After struggling for almost 45 minutes we gave up on trying to find our boat on foot – we were also late! – and hopped into a cab for what turned out to be a five minute ride. We were melting from the hike and, in order to save money had unfortunately, not booked a cabin as it was only an overnight trip – we had to figure out how to get comfortable in airplane-type seats. That is, until around 11 p.m. My travel buddy had been scouting around the boat and said he found a great spot right by the windows where we could roll out the sleeping bag and at least lie down. Yeah, great we could lie down, but what was not factored in was the screaming television that the boat kept going all night! That, coupled with some very heavy seas that tossed us a bit during the night, meant we arrived in Rhodes like zombies at 8 a.m.

Next stop: Rhodes, Greece