Spontaneous travel tales from other backpackers

I was sat up on a cold and boring boxing day evening, the phone rang and a mate said he had a crazy idea and was going to drive to the French Alps before going back to work on the 2nd January... I had nothing better to do and so 25 minutes later with a credit card, warm but certainly not ski chic clothes and E111 in hand we were headed to France. Dover, Paris, Lyon, snow in a night - we rented boards, slept (shivered) in the hallways, corridors, sheltered areas within the big chalet complexes, ate from super markets and I taught myself to snowboard (not very well, but it was more than I would have done at home!) - four days later we drove home, knackered, unshaven, smelly but pretty damn happy with ourselves. Whilst people at work spoke of the television and too much turkey I just smiled quietly to myself. Alan Russell

Click here >> if you've got any traveller's tales and post them on the messageboard. We're always on the look-out for travel tale gems - it's great to read about others' experiences.