## Multiple choice

### Have you ever been on holiday without your parents?

### Would you like to? Read this before you decide …

SAM

I come from a strange family. My parents have always believed that we should learn to look after ourselves from an early age. That included holidays. I remember my poor brother went on a canoeing (kanoën) trip on the River Thames with a cousin when they were both just twelve years old. They had a miserable time and have never really recovered from the experience.

When I was fifteen, they decided I was old enough to go on holiday with just my best friend. ‘You’re going to hitch-hike (liften) to the Lake District with a tent and a backpack; you’re going to camp, up in the mountains, for a week; and then – if you’re still alive – you’re going to hitch-hike back again. ‘So we hitch-hiked for hundreds of kilometres, we camped, we got cold and wet and scared, and couldn’t afford to buy enough food. But, against the odds (tegen alle waarschijnlijkheid in), we survived.

HARRIET

I’ve been on a number of holidays without my parents, but the first holiday was two years ago, when I was sixteen. Six of us decided to go backpacking in Wales during the school holidays. I booked cheap hotels before we left. The first two days were fine. But at the end of the second day, we lost our way. It was pouring with rain (stromende regen) and it was getting dark.

We eventually came to a farmhouse and knocked on the door. We were so dirty and wet that they didn’t let us into the house. We had to wait in the garage! But they let us phone the hotel. Anyway, the hotel manager kindly sent a car for us. But the next day it was still raining so we decided to take the train home. I’ve learned why no one goes backpacking in Britain in March – it rains non-stop and the fields are covered in deep mud (modder). I’ve never had such a miserable (ellendig) time! My holidays since then have been in warm places with dry weather!