Hi first off welcome to the boards!
Well I think you pretty much already have a great grasp of what you are getting into here! Eurail passes are glory yes it looks a little pricy but trust me in the end you are gonna save some cash, I wouldent go for the whole 1 month unlimited thing instead take the Eurail Flexipass. It allows you to travel for a certain number of days in a alloted time frame for example you wanna go to Paris from Madrid, you get on a train and then they come by and stamp your pass. Well there you just used a day, you have 24 hours to ride as many trains as you want and that will count as 1 ''day''. If you get 15 days thats 15 days you can travel trains in a 2 month time frame....get me?? If you dont go to:
www.Eurail.com
that will clear it up
I think money wise you hit it on the head. look for about 20 euro a day give or take 5 for accomodation and 20 to eat, I would eat from supermarkets and make sandwiches sometimes, this way you can bank some money and really splurge on some fine local cusine!!! Check out
www.hostelworld.com or the TP hostel guide to find some hostels in that price range your looking for. I would say if you had 1500 in spending money that would allow you a very fun time!!!
As for the cities I would say this
Paris 3 or more days
Amsterdam 2 days max, Adam gets old fast trust me you dont wanna overstay
Madrid, I would say 2 or 3 days depending on how much you like museums and art and archetechture
Prauge 2-3 days I would come here on the weekend cause its a party town and its soooo cheap that its worth to stay and have fun
Rome no less then 3 days there is so much to see you could spend a week and still scratch the surface
If you have more time then this other places I would reccomend in checking out if you have time would be
Barcelona 2 days
Munich 3 days (spend one going out to Schloss NeuSwanstein)
Berlin 2 or 3 days (eaither German city is a good weekend stop for parties)
Venice 2 or 3 days (I would like to stay longer but its not a cheap town)
Piza day trip
I dont wanna lay your trip out for you here cuase its yours those are just some ideas that are on your general trave route and if you get a flexipass then you have some time to check them out
I would reccomend that you get night trains all the time you can find a seat sleeper where you have to sleep in a reclyning seat for like 3 euro reservation and in some countries like France and Spain you can get couchette sleepers for about 15 euros give or take a couple. So you save accomodation and you get into town with a whole day too see the city. Sometimes I would get somewhere see the city in a day and take a night train out again.
Other times my mate was getting low on funds so we took night trains between 2 cities and literly see 2 cities at once.....just every othe day hahaha
Anyways have fun in Europe and let it blow you away, Im there right now and I spent the last 4 months traveling and working around so if you have anything else feel free to send me a messege or simply post it!
Have fun
wills