Writing Samples: A Nightmare Journey

A Nightmare Journey

I had a nightmare journey two years ago, when I was going to Madrid on holiday by car with my sister. We chose that city because our uncle worked there and he invited us to spend some days with him. It was the third of August and it was boiling! 

I drove and my sister gave me the directions, but suddenly we realized that we had got lost! We were in the middle of nowhere, no road signs, and no people. At least, we had food, drink, and the air conditioning worked! I drove for one more hour but it didn’t help. Moreover, we started to sweat, the air conditioning stopped working! My sister, who is asthmatic, couldn’t breathe well. I was driving nervously when I finally saw a road sign that said: Madrid 30 kilometres.

We arrived in Madrid twenty minutes later. We were safe and sound, but exhausted! In spite of the journey, we had a good time there!

A NIGHTMARE JOURNEY

I remember the event as if it had happened yesterday. My nightmare started when I arrived at Moscow airport.

My idea was to enjoy a fantastic holiday week in Russia but I could not.The problem began at customs where two policemen stopped me. They asked me for my passport and, after some verification, they took me to a small room close to the gate.

I don’t know if I looked suspicious because of my casual outfit, but the thing is they arrested me and they didn’t stop asking me many questions in very bad English.

At that moment I started thinking about many Cold War films and a small smile was reflected on my face. The policemen saw the smile and thought I was laughing at them and then, they got very angry and took me to prison. I stayed in jail for three days in a tiny room shared with four more people.

Finally, the Spanish Embassy got me out and I came back to Spain.

A nightmare journey

A nightmare journey I remember was last year when I was going to do take a cruise with my classmates. We were going to visit seven cities and the cruise started in Istambul.

We spent the first day of the cruise to see Istambul. After this, the ship was going to Kusadasi, a city of Turkey, when suddenly the ship stopped. Nobody knew what was the problem was. People was afraid and they didn't know what to do.

The captain told us that it wasn't dangerous and that they would need a few hours to repair the ship.

We had spent a day in the ship and this followed without moving. A few hours later, the company told us that they had prepared a plane to come back home.

Finally, people put complaints and the company gave back all the money of the cruise.

ITALIAN NIGHTMARE TRIPMy nightmare journey happened three years ago when I had just finished my degree in chemistry. My friends (Andres, Toni and Roger) and I wanted to do something special and then we decided to go on a journey, so a few weeks later we arranged a trip to Rome. It seems a great idea but in fact it was a complete disaster.

First of all, our flight was at 11 a.m. at the airport of Girona. We had to be two hours before to check in our luggage, so we set off early for the airport. Just when we were driving on the motorway near the airport, the car got a puncture. Fortunately we could pull over without problems and then we could change the wheel ourselves. Because of this I was afraid of being late at the airport and my friends thought we would miss the flight because time was running out and we wasted more than one hour fixing the spare wheel. When we were ready, we set off again and this time the driver, my friend Andres speeded up to be on time at the airport. He broke the speed limit but we needed to get the plane and then eventually, we managed to get to the check-in desk on time. Finally we could

relax. However our problems hadn’t finished yet. While we were waiting to board, Toni looked at the departures board and it showed the flight to Rome had been delayed. We didn’t believe how unlucky we were! Consequently we were growing pessimistic. But then we decided the best way to pass the time was playing cards, so we sat down on the floor and played poker games and “butifarra”, which is a traditional cards game in Catalonia. After seven eternal hours, the wait ended, we boarded and eventually the plane took off at 20 p.m.!

Finally, at least we had a happy stay in Italy. First, the place where we were staying, Hotel Siviglia was cheap and quiet. Then people that we met in Rome were friendly, nice and very kind with us. And in the end, the most important thing, the food was tasty, we ate there the most delicious pizzas and pasta we had ever eaten. Luckily, we came back home without problems. But Andres received a letter from the Traffic Administration two months after the trip. The letter showed a photo of his car’s license plate and he had been fined for breaking the speed limit.

Maybe it wasn’t a great experience, although I have very good memories of it and I remember this trip and the beautiful city of Rome.