My destination, a year-old hostel down the block, displayed a particularly, well, lofty name tag: the Loft.
The next night I checked into the Independente, the two-year-old hostel in the majestic town house that once housed the Swiss ambassador.
Two days later, the 10-lane boulevards of the former East Berlin led me past boxy Socialist-era high-rises to a huge, modern, year-old hostel called One80°.
I didn't want my 19-year-old hostel friends thinking I was older than their mothers (I probably was).
In the 17th century the Society of Friends, a religious sect commonly called the Quakers, met nearby in what is today the old Jordans hostel.
We are too old for hostel party vibe stuff, and are not fans of big hotels, preferring intimate little posadas/pensions with character and colour.
Lisbon Old Town Hostel in Bairro Alto (lisbonoldtownhostel.com) has dorm beds (€16) and twin bedrooms (€50) and is a five-minute walk from the Casa do Brazil.
The Spanish girls, Béa and Estrella who I met in Vilnius' Old Town Hostel were such great company that I ended up spending almost a whole week with them.
The two-year old Home Hostel has been voted one of the world's best, and it's not hard to see why – handy location in the central Baixa region, hotel-like amenities including free breakfasts and a lovely restaurant, and Mamma's Dinner, overseen by the owner's mother.
Old Town Hostel, Kotor Set within the medieval old town, this hostel is not short on charm.
