Nederlands / Berlin / Prague
 

Hi all!!!! I live in Argentina, I am 32 years old and I'm planning my first (quick) trip to Europe. Please be generous if my English is not very accurate. Since this is all very new to me, any recommendations and advices will help me A LOT!!!

The big picture of my short trip follows
- duration: 3 weeks
- moment: May 2014
- places:
-- Berlin 5 days (interested on mixture of people, arts, night life, and a cousin of mine living there)
-- Prague 5 days (interested on landscapes, historic places, night life and mixture of people)
-- Netherlands 10 days -Amsterdam & Brusells probably- (interested on landscapes, night life, culture, people, people, people ha!)


Let me clarify my profile, so you can suggest me any GREAT IDEAS!! or correct my planning ;-)

My interests are divided on

(1) Social
People close to culture, creativity, business or IT. Don't know why, I guess some people from the Netherlands do balance creativity and business in a very smooth way.

I do combine some music skills and IT profession.
On one hand I have a degree on Music teaching and take part on some gigs with my band. On the other, I am about to get a degree on IT and do work as an ABAP developer.
So I would enjoy getting in touch with people related to those topics. Can you anyhow suggest me places to go?

(2) Places
I would like to do some night life in bars, visit jazz/modern music places and go at least once to an opera house.
I do appreciate architecture and natural lanscapes. I believe Berlin will give me some modern views, Prague will integrate great antique buildings, and the Netherlands may show some nice nature (perhaps in May I could see tulip plantations)
I am not extremely interested on historic places, but would like to see some (since I've never been in Europe).
Regarding museums I am mostly interested on art from sXX - XXI.

In general, I like your division of time. You are giving yourself time to actually see the places you visit -- congratulations!

I think you might want to give some thought to two decisions:

(1) How much time do you want to devote to seeing landscapes versus nightlife? For example, you can do a pleasant day trip from Amsterdam to see windmills and polders and the sea. If you want to see much more of areas outside the cities, you'll need to cut your time there.

(2) How much time do you want to devote to getting in touch with other people in your linen of work? With only 3 weeks, you might want to devote all your time to travel!

Gven your interest in art, do be sure to leave enough time for some of the incredible museums in the cities you plan to visit.

I'm sure that 3 weeks seems like a lot of time -- trust me, it will go by more quickly than you could ever imagine.

sounds like a good intinary.
I am a regular traveller to Prague and you may be interested in the beer festival there held from the middle to end of May each year,it is usually combined with a Rockfest and at this years festival there was a battle of the bands type contest.
http://www.ceskypivnifestival.cz/en/czech/prague-2013/
this is the link from this year fest, not heard anything about next years so far.
there is a big modern Art movement in the Czech Republic and I am sure you have heard of David Cerney the bad Boy of European art,he has instalations all over the city

Thanks kja for your observation!! I'll try to reduce traveling time and focuse on social contact.

Unclegus!! I'm adding your ideas to a brand new to-do list!!
I didn't know Cerney so... googled him and seems amazing (if not a little disturbing, ha!)

He as a new installation,I hope to se it when I visit at the end of the month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24607870

Well, as far as travel is concerned:

1) Berlin to Prague by train from €29, booked at www.bahn.de/en - lovely scenery along the Elbe river south of Dresden, sit on the left hand side going south to see it best.

Why not stop in Dresden for a few hours? At www.bahn.de/en, simply click add stopovers, enter Dresden in the via box and say 05:00 in the hh:mm box and it'll give you a €29 Berlin-Prague fare with a 5 hour stop in Dresden!

2) Prague to Amsterdam there's a direct City Night Line sleeper train called the Phoenix. Leaves Prague Hlavni around 18:29, arrives Amsterdam around 09:59 next morning.

Book at www.bahn.de/en and print your own ticket.

Fares from €59 with couchette (simple flat bunk) or from €104 with a bed in a 2-bed sleeper, shower at the end of the corridor, light breakfast included.