A Day at the Dogs

I just recently went to Dublin on a trip with my class. There were a voluntary trip go see “the dogs”, which is basically a race where greyhound dogs compete, and humans bet on who wins, and possible lose some money. That was the case for my visit at least. But it really did not matter that much, I had a blast looking the program over with a friend of mine. Discussing which dog would be the realistic winner based on starting position, number of wins, times for last laps and even the age of the dog. As you might have guessed already, we were not very good at it, all though I, to my own defense, would say that we were a tad unlucky as well. For instance we had bet 5€ or so on a forecast (that is what it is called when you bet on which dog takes the first and second place in exact order) and we literally lost by the tip of a nose! We were so sure that we had won, that we yelled out “YES!” when the dogs ran across the finish line, and our confusion was total when we could not get any reward for our tickets. We actually refused to believe that we had not won, until we saw the picture taken at the finish line, showing the two dogs we had bet on crossing the line in the wrong order, one after another separated by only the tip of a nose! That was so frustrating.

But despite of bad luck and a loss of approximately 20€ the trip was a success. It was a fun cultural experience, it was not only old people who went to see and bet. There were people in all ages, it especially looked like a meeting place for teenagers, and I can fully understand, as a teenager myself, that it is a fun place to meet up.

But to round it up, if you ever go to Dublin, you should definitely pay “the dogs” a visit. For more information visit their website at http://www.dublinevents.com/dublin-sports/Greyhound-racing.php

Hope to see you all agian!

-         - Mads signing out