This trip is a good example of not planning everything at the same time. As the original plan stated we planned to do a 3-day Debrecen - Budapest trip, which ended up in being a 5 day Debrecen - Lviv - Krakow (Auschwitz) one.
Original plan: We didn't plan much for this one yet, but already booked a 9€ Wizzair flight to Debrecen, where we will probably explore the city for a couple of hours before travelling to Budapest, where we booked an apartment and will stay for 2 nights or something. A trip comparable with the one to Brno and Prague last march.
Update: Since we will go to Budapest in October, we'll probably move another direction when leaving Debrecen and go to Lviv, from where we go to Poland to visit Auschwitz, since I really want to visit Auschwitz another time, in a more desolate time of the year. Lviv is relatively close, so it would be the best chance to visit Auschwitz.
Update 2:
The trip is planned: We'll fly to Debrecen on a saturday and we will visit Debrecen and Nyiregyhaza that day, before taking the train to Zahony, cross the Hungarian-Ukrainian border to Chop where we take the nighttrain to Lviv. Booking your Ukrainian traintickets online is dirt cheap and really easy btw!
We'll stay in Lviv for one night, so that will give us two full days there, to explore the old city centre, the cemetery and maybe do something like shooting AK-47's! Looking forward to Lviv and to stay in one of the coolest looking hostels ever! After 2 days in Lviv we'll take the nighttrain to Krakow, arriving there early in the morning, go to the hostel, drop our stuff and head for the earliest possible Auschwitz tour at 10:30. After that tour we'll have the evening and night to explore Krakow before flying back from Katowice to Eindhoven on wednesday.
Costs overview:
Eindhoven - Debrecen (Wizzair) 9€
Debrecen - Nyiregyhaza (local train) 3,2€
Nyiregyhaza - Zahony (local train) 4,5€
Zahony - Chop (local train) 3,8€
Chop - Lviv (beds in nighttrain, kupe class), 7€
One night in Lviv: 13,5€
Lviv - Krakow (nighttrain) 40/45€
One night in Krakow: 12€
Krakow - Katowice (shuttlebus) 11€
Katowice - Eindhoven (Wizzair) 20€
Total costs for the flights, (night)trains and hostels: approximately 120€.
PS: this trip is a good example how to spread out your costs over different months. As you can see, there a quite a few small amounts of money which will add up pretty quickly to a bigger amount, but booking in advance can prevent this. I booked my flights seperately, in different months, booked some trains and the shuttlebus in another, I might pay the hostels by CC, so it can be paid some weeks later. From paying 120€ at once, you can easy go to paying 50/60€ during the trip, and the rest spread out over the months before/after the trip.
Also: i deliberately withdrew more money on other (cheaper) trips, so i already got some Hungarian/Polish money (total about 50€), which also helps in spreading some costs :)