Addition from previous version:

• Prague to Dresden
• Dresden public transport
• Czech public transport info

This is a live document, documenting how I got from one place to another, and how to buy the tickets for each form of transport, costs etc. I will be updating this as time goes on.

Europe

From Australia to Austria

Eva Air flight from Australia to Taipei, then from Taipei to Vienna, total cost $1250 aud. Purchased directly from eva air website using PayPal. Stop over in Taipei for about 16 hours, plan to visit a couple of places on this day using the metro.

Transport from Vienna airport into Vienna city center

CAT (city airport train) plus 3 day unlimited public transport. Cost around 20 euro. Buy from ticket machine at airport.

Vienna to Prague

Flixbus, install app from play store, buy ticket within app (via PayPal), cost about 25 euro.
Within the app you can see the station from where you are departing. For me it was Vienna Erdberg. You can click to navigate to the station from the app.

Prague Public Transport

Public transport costs are timed. You can get 30 min ticket, 90 minute ticket, daily ticket etc. Works on busses, trams and metro. Daily ticket costs 110 czk (that's right, not euro). Don't bother trying to work out the ticket machine, it takes Einstein to do it, plus it also only takes coins which is a hassle. Just buy a daily ticket from a tobacco store at the metro station.
I discovered later after withdrawing some czk from an ATM that most stores will take Euro if you ask them.

Prague to Cesky Krumlov

You can get Flixbus there in the morning, walk around for 3/4 hours then come back to Prague at night. About 15 euro each way depending on your departure times.

Prague to Dresden

I bought a train ticket from Prague to Berlin from the http://www.bhan.de website. It's not easy to change the language into English on the website. After a bit of fiddling around, here is the link I found which takes you to the reservation page in English.

Now here is the trick. I did not buy a ticket from Prague ending at Dresden. Instead, I bought a Prague to Berlin ticket with Dresden as a 48 hour stop over. It appeared that I did not pay any extra for this. 44.4 Euro including seat reservation.

To set Dresden as a stop over here is the screenshot of the reservation page:

The maximum amount of hours is 48 for the stop over. I personally think I could have done Dresden in one day but I guess I needed a bit of a break.

After you purchase the ticket, you have the option of loading the ticket onto the app DB Navigator, which can be downloaded from Google Play (and I assume Apple Store too).

Once you load the ticket into the app, it can be accessed without going online. Much easier. Unlike many people suggest, you don't need to print your ticket. Just make sure to show them the ticket bar code on your phone via the app when the ticket inspector comes.

I spent an extra $4 euro to book a seat but it was unnecessary as there were many spare seats (on this date 2018-12-26). If it was peak time I would suggest you book a seat though.

Dresden Public Transport

After I got here I discovered that public transport is quite similar to Prague, except there are also machines at tram stops and they are much easier to use, plus they accept credit card as well. I used my card to buy a daily ticket (6 euros) and used the tram about 3 times within a day, which just makes it more worthwhile than a one hour ticket (2.4 euros).

Make sure after you get the ticket from the machine, you validate it as you get on the tram, as you would do in other European cities. Once validated you don't need to validate it again.