I like my summers at the seaside and was never much one for traveling any place during the summer months that did not end up with me swimming someplace. (This is why, among other things, I loved the Helsinki Worldcon so much – there was fandom and swimming and sauna. <3)
It is hot in Croatia now, that I am so looking forward to not being here in August. I would take a trip to Finland any day, but Worldcon has moved so Ireland it is. Last time, when Worldcon was in London in 2014, Eurocon was the weekend after in Dublin and that was my first time in Ireland. I did not plan it well and saw almost nothing of the city or the country. I will correct that this summer.
This year’s Worldcon is an Irish Worldcon, held in Dublin and I am so looking forward to going. I have no duties this time around, so far, although there is some volunteering in my future for sure, because I have not yet ever been to a Worldcon without putting in some hours. I am itching to make plans with all the people I want to see and chat to and have lunch and coffee with. I am sure I will miss more than half of them, but it will be so much fun. Every Worldcon is, for me. Even if having only one child and a husband does not qualify me as a family at an Irish Worldcon. 😉
I cannot wait for August!
Just like last time, the weekend after Worldcon, there is an Irish Eurocon, this one in Belfast and part of the Titancon convention. Eurocons are a special kind of convention, a weird hybrid between a Worldcon done the European way and the local convention it is usually attached to. This gives it a unique flavor each time, which can be great or not, depending on preferences. What it always is, like any SF convention, is a meeting of people I love to spend time with. There will be travel around Ireland, this time, too.
In the meantime, in Croatia there will be Liburnicon, a local con that has recently moved to the middle of August. I might have gone this year, even if was in the middle of summer, for their GoH Tad Williams. But I do not think I will miss Opatija as much while having fun in Dublin.
