Student travel-writing competition

Students can tell the world how they got on this summer, and win a trip to Sydney. The 1995 student travel writing competition is under way. This time next year you could be flying down to Sydney, or exploring Eastern Europe, courtesy of the Independent, Campus Travel and Rough Guides. The two top prizewinners will also be invited to write for these pages.

Write no more than 500 words on an incident in your travels this summer, on the subject "A misunderstanding". Whether you are a willing participant in a linguistic contretemps or the unwitting transgressor of local laws or customs, tell us a tale that will make us laugh or gasp.

The prizes:

1st: Campus Travel, specialist in youth travel, will provide the winner with two round-trip tickets to Sydney. The winner will be equipped with the new edition of the Rough Guide to Australia.

2nd: Campus Travel will provide two Young Europe Special air passes, each with four coupons, for use next summer. The runner-up also gets the forthcoming updated Rough Guide to Prague.

3rd: Ten consolation prizes of the new Rough Guide to Venice.

Entries should be sent to Student Travel Writing Competition, the Independent, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL by 14 October 1995. Usual Newspaper Publishing plc rules apply. Entrants must be full-time students, aged under 25 on 1 September 1995 and enrolled at UK universities or colleges. Entries must be original and unpublished elsewhere.