Personally i don’t take anything expensive or that i would care about if it was lost or stolen, as it can quite often be a hassle, despite its size it may well be a weight on your mind if you will worry about it getting stolen. It is up to yourself and a lot of people do take things like laptop’s on long trip’s and have no problems.

Most hostel’s provide internet access plus internet cafe’s are common in western European city’s and many can be found in eastern European city’s

I agree with Davy that it’s a matter of personal preference. I don’t take mine unless I’m going to be in one place, where I’m sure I’ll have high speed internet access, for about two weeks and I don’t even take it then if the trip involves lots of traveling around.

Thanks for the replies!