How to survive going on holiday with a teenager means having boundaries. I drew mine in a straight line between my neat side in the hotel twin rooms we shared on our travels, and the seventh circle of hell on my 15-year-old's side. We were taking trains and coaches between European cities this summer.
But after being cooped up for eight hours with five German exchange students and my own grunty teenager, who can’t speak much English either, on the world’s hottest and slowest train from Budapest to Ljubljana – stopping at every random concrete hut that passed for a station along the way – I thought, "The melting ice caps can do one – I’m flying with her next time.” Travelling sustainably is completely possible in Europe as rail fares are so much cheaper than the UK where you have to book five years in advance and donate a kidney if you want a saver ticket. But in some countries, like Hungary, that does mean you get what you pay for.
Our eight-hour journey cost £60 for two, but I’d have paid twice that for a working loo that didn’t smell like the entrance to the underworld. “What? I have to sit here doing nothing for eight whole hours?” she complained when we climbed onboard our ancient rolling stock at Budapest’s Deli station. I replied, “You should be well practised – that’s what you do at home.
” I planned this summer adventure with my 15-year-old, who’s just done her mock GCSEs because when she turns 16 she insists she’s going travelling .