Backpacking through Europe: The basics {Gadling}

Jul 7th 2008 5:37PM I want to go backpacking through Europe one day, probably within the next three years, and i was just surfing the net about it, and i just checked the rate at hostels, and it is much more than 25-40 a day....they had booking fees and everything when i checked out hostelworld.com. like 3 nights in paris was $160!!! is it really that expensive??