WORLD DOG SHOW, Stockholm - 05.07.2008

And finally it came, the long awaited trip to the home country of Danka. With my golden retriever friend Eszter we packed the car and drove off to Scandinavia. We'd been there before twice by car, so we knew exactly what to expect: a looooong car ride, many sleepless hours, funny (and drunk) people on the Sassnitz-Trelleborg ferry and nice discussions to keep each other awake. :-)

The main reason for me was holiday in my much beloved Sweden, the show was just an extra. Also, I was looking forward to see Camilla and her lovely dogs again and also all the other international friends I keep in touch with through mail.

I managed to hire a house in the country side, about 70 km from Stockholm that suited all our and our friends' needs. The lady owning it was a really nice person and refused other people looking for rooms, though there were some left - just to make us happy (basically to make Zsolt happy...). So we moved in for some days, with bobtails, bearded collies, golden retrievers, a newfoundland, a dachshound and of course an irish setter. Everybody had a separate room but there was not much sleep, I can tell you. The magic of the light Swedish summer nights caught us and resulted in discussions all night long, sprinkled with laughter and Hungarian pálinka :-)

And Saturday came, the show day... After some problems with missing fuel in the tank and not finding a parking place (and ending up with penalties all days), Danka and I finally arrived at ringside. Myra from Australia welcomed me with a big hug :-) and also Camilla showed up! I was also happy to finally meet Kickie and Ursula in real!

After seeing the competition I just got more nervous. And after the judging started, it accelerated... Judge Mrs. Kate Condron gave many "very goods" and even more "goods" and I think I was near to collapse. But as brave as we are, Danka and I entered the ring with 4 others champions. I am not quite sure what happened in there, only remember that after a while I was told to go to the placement sign stating 1st :-) Danka girl made me proud again and I cried!!! I could hear the Hungarian friends screaming from ringside. 

Intermediate class was won my a Coppers-bitch called Quincy, aunt Bubbles became World Winner '08 later on and niece Tosca Junior BIS-4! What a family affair and what a day for Camilla's breeding! Thank you all for the congrats coming via text messages, mails and phone calls!

If you are interested in the full results, please visit this link. Huge congrats to Magnus for winning Best of Breed!

After a long day we drove back "home" to our house and "had to" celebrate again :-) A long night one more time, but we had to get up early again. Eszter had her WW day but poor her, she had to drive me to the ISF show first. Of course it was in the opposite direction... The day started out rainy and cloudy but the sky cleared up later on. Danka did nothing that day :-) but I finally had time to look at the males that I missed the day before because of the separate rings. The Coppers dogs had a good day again and special congrats to little Katinka for taking the Premie! Congrats also to Banchee for winning BOB that day, she looked lovely! Full results here.

Taking Camilla's car fully packed back to her house. But before driving, we had to drop in to the castle where they sold the most delicious cakes!

Arriving in Asketorp, we had some nice Swedish food and some glasses of wine from all over the world :-) Eva, the owner of Louie was also there and it was nice to hear the news from the UK show scene. We spent some days at Camilla's place, Danka felt herself at home and enjoyed the walks in the forest. But far too soon the day arrived when we had to leave back to Hungary. On the way home we visited a golden kennel as well, sorry Ursula that we had no time for you but we really had to catch the ferry! I promise that you'll get more than enough of me one nice day :-)

After many long hours again, we finally arrived at home. It was a very tiring trip but oh, so much fun and definately worth everything!