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Travel

Reading, Listening and Vocabulary

When I was younger my whole family used to travel around Ireland in an old Volkswagen Beetle. Not only this, but we used to sleep in the car at night too, my parents, my brother, my sister and me. It was really cramped and my brother’s socks smelled terrible, but we had great times travelling on my parent’s low budget.

When I was older, I guess in my teens, I loved hitch-hiking around Ireland, probably because it was free and it made me feel free. Sometimes, I would stick out my thumb and hitch a lift to university or to the beach or to the mountains, anywhere really. In the summer I really enjoyed youth hostelling too. I met people from all over the world there, people from Germany, Brazil, Japan, France and so on. I guess this is where my love of  travel began.

I remember one time telling my parents that I was going to stay in my friend’s house for the weekend; instead I got on a boat and headed for London. I think I was 16 at the time. I had saved up some money, from odd jobs here and there, but when I got to London, I realized how expensive Youth Hostels were. I had to cut short my trip to only a night, but it was great, I had my sleeping bag, the bunk beds were great and the hostellers were all friendly.

My travel bug really caught on during university. I would go to London or Paris for the weekend regularly, sometimes to see friends, but mostly to go to art exhibitions. Now, I wasn’t a rich student. In fact I remember when I was a student, a telephone company chasing after me to try and get me to pay a bill, and I remember surviving on one box of biscuits for two weeks, so how could I travel to these places?

In Europe, travelling by train can be kind of expensive, but taking a boat is cheaper. Cheaper still is flying. Hopping around Europe by plane doesn’t cost too much if you are willing to put up with a few cutbacks on the plane, such as no food, higher taxes and so on. The chief snag is finding reasonably priced accommodation when you arrive at your destination.

Luckily I had made lots of friends around Europe, from the hostels I used to go to during the summer in Ireland. We kept in touch and I was able to stay with them, when I travelled. The flights were easy to find. Europe has a few budget airlines, such as Ryan Air, Go and Easy Jet. These airline companies will fly you to various cities around Europe for about  €30. I always had to be on the lookout for cheap deals, either on Teletext or the Internet.

I didn’t have a credit card then, so it was not as easy to book tickets online, normally I’d just check them out online first, then go to my local Travel Agent and get them that way.

Today however; when I travel, I just open up the website I want to use, pick my flight, use my credit card number and a secure page for payment, such as Pay Pal, then within 5 seconds I can receive confirmation of my booking by email. I’ll be able to see my booking reference number, the day of my departure and so on. Later when I go to the airport I’ll just hand over my passport and quote my reference number. Oh and answer the security questions.

Most of my friends back home travel about once a year. They go on package holidays to the south of Spain for 2 weeks. Some would rent a Villa; others would get hotels with pools.

When I was a kid I never went abroad, I travelled the length and breadth of Ireland in a clapped out old Beetle. It seems a million miles away now, but when I get on Facebook and see photos of my friends and their kids, travelling around Ireland, I think back to those times with my family and smile.

Phrases

The most commonly used Travel Phrasal Verbs

Questions  (Please click on the links below to find some sample questions)

Travel        Holidays        Vacation