Corinne CrawfordI had the opportunity to again travel with my aunt for the world championship for dog agility, this time to England. Her dog Maverick qualified and would be running again for team USA. And again, my aunt offered me my ticket overseas if I helped arrange the travel and help her navigate the different locations for accommodations and the competition venue. I had done this before for her the year prior when the event was held in the Netherlands. I gratefully accepted while I was still on my spring travels and as soon as I returned to the States, starting researching and planning. This time around was not so simple as getting to The Netherlands with Maverick. The UK seems to be one of the hardest places to get a dog into the country. My aunt Sally shared with me all the information she was learning from the other members of the US team as they made their arrangements and I did hours and hours of research myself. It turned out that flying directly into the UK was not an option because unless the dog is accredited as a service dog by a UK recognized organization, the dog must fly in the cargo hold. That was not an option. So we had to pick a different country to fly into and then make our way to Great Britain. I searched trains, ferries, the Chunnel, pet taxi, etc. I searched from France, The Netherlands, Ireland, etc. Trying to balance out the expense versus the timing versus the hassle of getting from one mode of transportation to the other was overwhelming considering the varied types of paperwork and permissions needed to travel with a pet on the various type of transportation. And unlike the previous year, when the team had already arranged for accommodations at a single location, this time each team member had to find and arrange their own digs. I would research options and then consult with Sally only to find out a new piece of information that had to be considered. Now, for most of this planning, my Uncle Bob was going to join us so we found a two bedroom apartment in the town of Lincoln about 20 minutes driving from the venue that would accept dogs. But after so much back and forth and hassle, Bob finally decided that it seemed to complicated and withdrew from coming with us.
We finally settled on an arduous itinerary which had us landing in Dublin at 9am after an all night flight with a connection in Atlanta. Then a taxi to the hotel I had booked us in Dublin for the day to rest, then another taxi to the port a bit after midnight to catch the 2:15am ferry over to Wales. Because we had the dog, we had to book a pet cabin on the ferry and the only available pet cabins were at 2:15am. The ferry was huge and the cabin very comfortable with small bunks so after I watched the ferry leave the port and head out into the darkness from the upper deck of the boat, we both got a few hours of good sleep. Then we arrived at the UK side port at just about 6am and had to wait for a few hours for the rental car agency to open to pick up the car and drive the 4 hours to our final destination in Lincoln.
The entire trip was pretty exhausting. During our 16 hour wait in Dublin, I had planned on just sleeping or at least relaxing in the hotel room but during our taxi ride to the hotel from the airport, the driver was telling us that the final match of Gaelic football between the local team Dublin and Kerry was being played in Dublin that day in the midafternoon. As we drove through the different parts of Dublin to get to our hotel, we saw both people and buildings decked out in the blue team colors of Dublin and I knew that I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to have a truly unique experience of watching the game at a local pub later that day. So I cleaned myself up a bit at the hotel and headed back out in the afternoon to a pub less than a 10 minute walk away called The Bleeding Horse. I had messaged a friend that I had met on other travels that lived in Dublin to ask where a good place to go might be and that was his recommendation based on where our hotel was. So I made my way there about an hour before the match was supposed to start thinking I would grab a bite to eat there as well. I made it there just in time to take the last bar stool available and by the time the match started, it was standing room only throughout the pub.
Before the Gaelic football match, there was another game I had never seen before being played on the TV. I believe it was cricket. I just love that there is still a sport that has sweater vests as part of the uniform. How very posh.
Gaelic football is a hoot to watch and this was my first time watching. It is 70 minutes long split into two 35 minute halves. I couldn’t even count how many players are on the field at any one time but it is played on what looks like a soccer (football) field and players do not wear any protective gear. The “end zones” have both a soccer goal and football like goal posts. I would describe it as a mix of soccer, American football, basketball, and volleyball. It was a close match with Dublin pulling out a win at the very end of the game. Because the bar was so crowded, getting a bite to eat was not an option but at the end of the match, my friend that recommended the pub messaged me and suggested we meet up at a different pub for another drink. After that drink, I was starving so I made my way back to the hotel and had to have a burger at the hotel restaurant before trying to catch an hour and a half of sleep before having to head to the port for our ferry.
