I have to reiterate FurnaceFace's point above...a lot of people didn't realize how little they can actually accomplish on travel days, and did get annoyed going from city to city so quickly. At a point, you end up spending more of your trip in an airport, a train or a bus than in the cities you wish to visit.
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Originally Posted by rubecube
I'm actually going to be staying on site at the Sziget festival in Budapest but I'd be happy to hear about the hostels in Prague and Berlin. I'll probably skip Munich because I'm planning on being there in September for Oktoberfest.
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In Berlin I stayed at
Jetpak Alternative. Berlin has a lot of different neighbourhoods with different characteristics. This one is in Kreuzberg where there is a lot of graffiti and it is known as an area with a lot of immigrants, many Turkish, and having an area with some underground bars. I found a good shawarma place in the area I ate at. It is also close to Berlin Ostbahnhof (East train station), East Side Gallery and the subway. I was sick for much of my time in Berlin, and was only there for a short time so to be quite honest I didn't get a whole lot done. Some of the bars in the area opened Thursday afternoon, and weren't closing until mid-day Monday. Typically, you can have a hard time getting into bars as a foreigner if you are a part of a male-dominated group.
Anyway, I would definitely recommend that hostel if the neighbourhood doesn't turn you off at all. The rooms were super clean and it was small so good to meet some people. They had a stocked bar fridge where you pay for drinks based on the honour system, with cheap beer. There is a sketchy park across the street I would not go in after dark. A lot of people staying at the hostel rented bicycles - said it was a great city for biking in.
In Prague I stayed at
Hostel One. They plan some activities for dinner throughout the week, either excursions, a barbecue on their patio or something cooked up in the kitchen. It's not located right at Prague city centre but it's easy to get to on the tram (like 5 minutes) and you may appreciate a break from all the people. They had a bar downstairs that they would open for a few hours before most people went out as a group to do something at night. Prague is a lovely city, much of my time here was spent wandering. The castle is huge.
If you feel like getting out of the city's a bit, I can recommend a short trip to Ceske Budejovice, the home of Budweiser. I stopped here for lunch on my way to Prague. I didn't do a whole lot other than get to say I tried a Budweiser here. Don't get scared by the name, it's much different than the American Budweiser. Also, you could run into Roman Horak and express your condolences for him being traded to the Oilers.
Just beyond Ceske Budejovice is Cesky Krumlov. It's a small town, although it gets a lot of tourism now. I found it to be a nice break from the big cities. It is absolutely gorgeous, and had another huge castle. There were several places to go for some nightlife in town...just small pub-type establishments...no huge Prague-type dance clubs here. I stayed at
Hostel 99. It is at the end of an alley right at the city gates, so it is actually a pretty quiet area. They do a tubing pub crawl along the river, which I would have loved to do, but it turned out that I picked the wrong day to be there.
For information on trains throughout Europe, I use
http://seat61.com/ if I am curious about anything. For transport in an around Czech Republic you can use
Student Agency, which I found to have cheap but comfortable buses.