[NAGDU] Our trip to Ireland

Thu Nov 14 18:29:16 UTC 2024

Tracy –

What an interesting post! I’m so glad you had a good trip and I value all of your insights on your trip. I hope one day to travel and this is very informative.

Thanks bunches!

Dian

On Nov 14, 2024, at 8:39 AM, Melissa Allman via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:

Thanks for sharing Tracy.

-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU <nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via NAGDU
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2024 9:45 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users' <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Cc: carcione at access.net
Subject: [NAGDU] Our trip to Ireland

Some people were interested in my trip to Ireland with my dog Igloo, and my husband, so here's my story. Just FYI, Igloo is a yellow lab/golden, 23 inches tall and almost white.

I'm glad people here recommended having hard copies of the airlines forms.
Even though we flew on Aer Lingus, an Irish airline, they wanted the DOT forms.  I uploaded them to the airlines website, but they wanted to see the hard copies when we got to Newark Airport, and spent a long time showing them to supervisors and making copies.  I insisted on getting them back, which was good, since they also wanted to see the forms when we were in Dublin airport to fly home.  At least that time they didn't want to take more copies.  Really, it was as if the people in Newark had never seen a guide dog before.  

I also had the CDC form, which US Customs in Dublin needed to see.

The flight from Newark to Dublin was around 6 hours, + the hours beforehand getting through security and all, so when we arrived we wanted to get Igloo a place to pee as soon as possible.  But we nearly caused an international incident.  I thought, instead of waiting around who knew how long for someone to show up to assist, we could just follow the crowd down to baggage, run outside for Igloo to pee, then come back in for our appointment with the Ministry of Ag to look at Igloo's papers.  I didn't know that, in Ireland, baggage is included in the secure zone.  An Aer Lingus person caught up with us partway through our scamper, but really wasn't too helpful.  We came almost outside, then we stopped in a foyer by a security desk, and the guard there said we couldn't go outside because Igloo wasn't approved, and we couldn't go back inside because we'd left the secure area.
We were just supposed to stay in the foyer.  He said Igloo could pee on the floor.  I knew Igloo wouldn't do that.  Then the guy yelled at us that we should have had pee mats with us.  We didn't, and I don't think Igloo would have gone for that anyway.  My husband has trouble not raising his voice when he gets upset, and we were both anxious, but I was worried he'd get arrested trying to straighten the mess out.  Finally a supervisor came, and he was very helpful and calm.  He took us outside, where Igloo didn't waste any time using a bit of grass the super found.  Then we had to go back through security, with lots of paperwork for the super, and then back to where we could meet with the Ag person.  Happily, the Ag person came in early to meet us, so that was quick and we got away to our hotel.  Anyway, we won't do that again, and take a warning by me.

After that everything was great.  We brought Igloo's Mutt Mat with us, so he lay on it in our tour bus and in various castles and cottages.  Ireland doesn't get below freezing often, and buildings do not have the heating or cooling we're used to, so many of the floors in places we visited were quite chilly.  

Igloo walked up and down spiral staircases in castles, some of them quite uneven, so that enemies would have a hard time running up them.  

We went into the passage tomb at New Grange, which was an amazing experience.  There were many places I had to duck under stone beams, and one very narrow place I had to turn sideways.  Igloo was cautious but not anxious.  When we got to the inside room, deep under the hill, our guide turned off her light so she could show people how the light comes in at Winter Solstice.  That made some people anxious, but not Igloo.  The guide let me touch the 5,000-year-old stone carving on the big marker stone, which was incredible.

On our way back to the bus, we passed a guide dog puppy in training, wearing his puppy vest.  We didn't stop to chat, but Igloo looked.  Maybe he was saying "This could be you someday, kid."

It was a bit hard on Igloo, switching hotels every couple days.  We'd just get used to one, then move on to the next.  I think he was getting a bit stressed by the end, but he still did a great job.  He could always find the restaurant or the pub, and always find our room, once we found the lift.
None of the hotel rooms had braille room numbers, so I hung a mask on the door handle when we went out until we got good with the room location.  

Our tour was for musicians, so we had a session every night.  Igloo was very good about lying quietly while I played my whistle with the fiddles, guitars, and flute.  I didn't know if he'd mind the music, but he was great.

We took a Samhain-Halloween walk through a field with a guide and actors impersonating Halloween creatures.  Some of them were magpies and would rush at us making bird screeches.  Igloo bounced at one who came pretty close.  I think he thought this was a fun game and was ready to play, but they got a hint and didn't come so close after that.

Everywhere we went, people were impressed by Igloo's intelligence and calm, sweet nature.  He was a shining example of what a Seeing Eye dog should be, and I was very proud of him.  It was a lot of hassle to bring him with me, but I'm glad I did.

Tracy

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