virgin voyage

Sam has gone through a lot of firsts lately, thanks to joining us on vacation (that was also a first). most importantly, perhaps: his first journey aboard public transport. he'd been on a bus before, but only for a few stops. the journey now in question would last for about two and a half hours.

we had two options: bus or train. we thought he'd be less upset by motor movements on the train, but that journey did involve a change and a forty-minute wait at an unknown railway station. if it was going to be big and busy, that would be a very long wait. so we went for the direct bus, and comically, had to wait for an hour at the bus stop because it was delayed.

while waiting, we overheard some old ladies talking (loudly) about how the bus driver would surely not let us on with that big beast, when there was bound to be a lot of children on board. with time (it was a long wait), they changed their tune and were full of praise for how calm Sam was, and when the bus finally did arrive, one of them attempted to help us by "directing" him onto the bus.

we had feared crowds (unknown to us, we'd booked our cottage for the start of the school holidays), but fortunately, there were a lot of empty places. they only happened to be upstairs. we climbed up to the deck without problems (down was a different story), and found ample space at the back. Sam used all the legroom to sprawl in. on the entire ride, he got a little anxious and curious about what was outside the windows a few times, but apart from that was a big, furry angel.

the problems only began after we'd alighted from the bus and had to find our way through crowds of people to a cottage we only knew from maps. i committed assault on a man by smashing Sam into him, all in an attempt to get him out of the way of an alsatian (remember those?) that looked suspiciously out of control. after that, i kept him (Sam, that is) on a short and tight leash, and avoided further mishaps... but feared how we'd get anywhere in that town.

fortunately, we found the cottage where a bowl of water and some dog biscuits were waiting for us. also some human bisucits, which we ate gratefully.