**Telling a Story**

A magazine asked its readers to send in stories about a time they had a problem when traveling.

**Read the Story Once**

Why did Begoña and her husband get lost? What else went wrong?

**Read the Story Again and Complete the Gaps**

Fill in the blanks with a connecting word or phrase from the list:
- although
- as soon as
- however
- instead of
- so
- because
- then
- but
- when

**Disastrous Journeys!**

We asked you to tell us about a time you had a problem when traveling. Begoña from Spain wrote to us...

**A Bad Journey**

This happened a few years ago. I live in Alicante, in Spain, and my husband and I had rented a house in Galicia for the summer holiday. We were going to drive first to Tarragona to stay for a few days with some friends and then drive from Tarragona to Galicia. The first part of the journey was fine. We were using our new satnav for the first time and it took us right to the door of our friends' house. Three days later, as we continued our journey, we put in the name of the small town in Galicia, Nigrán, which was our final destination. We started off, obediently following the instructions. After a while, we realized that instead of driving west towards Lleida, we were going north. In fact, soon we were quite near Andorra, right on the border with France. I was sure we were going in the wrong direction, but my husband wanted to do what the satnav was telling us - it was his new toy! It was only when we started seeing mountains that even he admitted this couldn't be the right way. So we stopped, got out an old map, and then turned around. We had wasted nearly two hours going in the wrong direction!

It was an awful journey, because as well as getting lost, we had another problem. When we were nearly at our destination, we stopped for a coffee at a little bar, but when we got back onto the motorway we realized that we had left our dog under the table in the café! For the second time that day, we had to turn around and go back. Luckily, the dog was still there! And although the beginning of our trip was a disaster, we had a wonderful holiday!

**Write about a Journey**

Write about a journey where you had a problem (or invent one) to send to the magazine. Plan what you're going to write using the paragraph notes below. Use the language from the "A Bad Journey" box to help you.

**Paragraph 1**

- When was the journey?
- Where were you going?
- Who with?
- Why?

**Paragraph 2**

- What problem did you have?
- What happened?

**Paragraph 3**

- What happened in the end?

**Check Your Story**

Check your story for mistakes in grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, and spelling.

**Map Reference**

- Madrid
- Spain
- Portugal
- Lleida
- Tarragona
- Alicante
- Balearic Islands

**Scale**

- 100 km, 200 km, 300 km
- 100 miles, 200 miles