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DUBLIN 2019: An Irish Worldcon August 15-19 2019


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For those attending both Worldcon and Eurocon:
Worldcon officially ends on the 19th; Eurocon officially starts on the 22nd.
That leaves a couple of days in-between, open for sight-seeing, get-togethers, and travel.
When are you travelling from Dublin to Belfast? 
Are there good reasons to make the trip sooner rather than later, beyond the fact that the Belfast hotels may be cheaper than those in Dublin?
If you had a free day in either city, what would you do?

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There is a sort of official train journey planned, as I understand it - on which day, I don't know - so that might be the thing to aim for.

I've never been to Dublin but from all I can see, Belfast is very significantly cheaper to stay in.

Yet Belfast is not 'all that touristy', and so one thing to consider is whether there might be anything to do in between the two cities - but... I've not looked into that.

So, er, this is not a very useful reply, but, yes, let's have this conversation and make the stars align. Those who know more, please join in the discussion!

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One thing to do in Belfast is going on a tour of of some sort -- there's lots of Game of Thrones tours, of course (you can visit some locations without needing any guide, of course, like visiting the Castle Ward demense which is home to about a dozen scene locations by itself), but if you like natural scenery a tour up the Antrim coast is quite spectacular. The Giant's Causeway is really amazing.

If you're into whiskey, I think there's tours of the Old Bushmills and Echlinville distilleries. There's also museums like the Ulster Museum and the Titanic Belfast to visit. 

Pretty sure there are tours of the many historic pubs in NI as well. Also, County Fermanagh and the area around Lough Erne is quite pretty. 

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1 hour ago, Toft said:

There is a sort of official train journey planned, as I understand it - on which day, I don't know - so that might be the thing to aim for.

I have heard conflicting stories as to whether or not this is really occurring. 

It's certainly possible for a group of us to plan to travel together, either by train or motorcoach, w/o regard for whether or not a formal/official trip is offered. Either way, though, this leads back to my original question as to what day one should leave Dublin for Belfast.

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4 hours ago, Toft said:

There is a sort of official train journey planned, as I understand it - on which day, I don't know - so that might be the thing to aim for.

There is anything that's going to be officially organised by the convention, but I know Dave Lally has been trying to co-ordinate fans travelling on the same train, if I remember correctly this was on the Wednesday.

I haven't decided when I'm going to be travelling up, our AirBnB booking ends on the Tuesday so it might make sense to head north on that day.

4 hours ago, Toft said:

Yet Belfast is not 'all that touristy', and so one thing to consider is whether there might be anything to do in between the two cities - but... I've not looked into that. 

I've been to both but not really to anywhere in between (other than fairly close to Belfast). This feels like something @Peadar would know.

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I've never been to Dublin so, assuming I'm alive post-dead-dog, I would be aiming to explore a bit more on the Tuesday.

I think Wednesday is the most sensible day to leave Dublin, basically, and I think you're right, that is the day for which Dave Lally is trying to organise the train. There is enough to do in Belfast on arrival on the Wednesday - nice pubs, museums and stuff.

We could find out which locations are being covered by the Titancon coach tour and then think about running another coach going to some of the others on the Thursday. It'll be fun to co-ordinate whatever we do, anyway.

Any word yet of a BwB party?

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13 hours ago, williamjm said:

There is anything that's going to be officially organised by the convention, but I know Dave Lally has been trying to co-ordinate fans travelling on the same train, if I remember correctly this was on the Wednesday.

I haven't decided when I'm going to be travelling up, our AirBnB booking ends on the Tuesday so it might make sense to head north on that day.

I've been to both but not really to anywhere in between (other than fairly close to Belfast). This feels like something @Peadar would know.

The distance between the two cities is less than two hours! However, if you are driving, you could do worse than stopping off in Carlingford for a bit. And obviously, anybody who loves archeology should book a visit to New Grange, aka Brú na Bóinne...

 

A

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I am interested in helping organise one. Thinking about it, though, many local BwBers will be very busy organising TitanCon itself. Still, let's see who is interested and perhaps we can make something happen.

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6 hours ago, Peadar said:

There is anything that's going to be officially organised by the convention, but I know Dave Lally has been trying to co-ordinate fans travelling on the same train, if I remember correctly this was on the Wednesday.

 

Peadar, is there a link available for additional info, sign-up, etc.?

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Worth noting that the Official HBO Game of Thrones Touring Exhibition will be in Belfast the week of WorldCon/EuroCon.

Belfast is perhaps less touristy than Dublin - it's a somewhat smaller city - but there's certainly tons of stuff to do. There's lots of great museums and no shortage of places to eat. There's also some excellent local breweries (I believe we haven't yet managed to exhaust visiting them all in ten years, mainly because new ones keep popping up), a top-rate zoo, the Titanic Museum - which is enormous and takes quite a lot longer to wander around than you'd think - and a fair bit more stuff. This will be the tenth year in a row that the BwB EuroCommies have done an event in Belfast and there's still places no-one's made it to despite planning to almost every year.

At the moment I'm booked into the Dublin hotel until Tuesday and will probably head up to Belfast at that point. For some of us it's going to be rolling out straight out of WorldCon into prepping for EuroCon. It'll be enormous fun, but my liver, stomach, sleeping patterns and bank balance are already crying out in pain and we're still seven months from D-Day.

Also, and it's been delayed yet again due to circumstances beyond our control, we should have EuroCon's GoH announcement and arrangements for hotel rooms etc up next week, if anyone's waiting for more info before committing (hint: I wouldn't wait, it's going to be very much worth it :) ).

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OK, @DaveAx! I got a response from Dave Lally:

"see the f/bk pages for both W and for E: Enterprise Train Con (Wed 21 Aug): meet  no later thAn 1430 at madigans in Connolly (we cathCh 1520 to Belfast)..."

I think he means, check the facebook pages of WorldCon and EuroCon (TitanCon). They're taking the Enterprise Train from Connolly Station at 15:20 -- that's in easy walking distance of the Dublin Convention Centre -- on Wednesday 21 August. Meeting at no later than 14:30.

I hope that helps!

 

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Just booked our hotel for WorldCon. We'll be at the Jurys Inn Dublin Parnell Street and we got a triple accommodation so we can take one more (currently it's just me and Billy). We check in on Wednesday the 15th and out on Monday the 19th. We haven't made any plans for how to get to Belfast or when yet, but we do have our TitanCon/EuroCon memberships.

I've offered to do panels and/or volunteer at WorldCon, but nothing yet. I'll probably do the same for TitanCon/EuroCon, so if anyone knows where there's help needed, let me know.

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4 hours ago, Peadar said:

"see the f/bk pages for both W and for E: Enterprise Train Con (Wed 21 Aug): meet  no later thAn 1430 at madigans in Connolly (we cathCh 1520 to Belfast)..."

It took a bit of scrolling around to find it, but here's Mr. Lally's full statement:
" More confirmed data on this: ENTERPRISE TRAIN CON : Wed 21 Aug. meet (not later than 1430: Madigans Bar (on the left as one faces the destination display) Connolly Rail Stn Dublin (with --already purchased (in Euros)-- yr Dublin->Belfast rail tkt). We join the 1520 Enterprise express to Belfast Laynon Place Rail Stn (arr ~1720). We occupy the std class carriage furthest from Connolly tkt barrier (ie next to the loco). Eurocon venue (Hilton) is across the road from the Belfast Stn! Most thus early arrivals will meet pre-Eurocon that Wed evening in Hilton main bar."

I've taken the liberty of suggesting that he set up a FaceBook Event page for this.

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1 hour ago, Lil Red Head said:

I've offered to do panels and/or volunteer at WorldCon, but nothing yet. 

Did you fill out the participant survey?

(I'd link but the website is busy today, for some reason. :p)

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There is the Dave Lally enterprise Train experience which I think is the Wednesday.

I am however suggesting a smaller gathering of people  to make a similar journey on the Tuesday.

 

this will probably mostly be people wanting to get to Belfast slightly earlier and may have Con Prep work.

Titan Con hopes to organise a group trip to the HBO GOT Touring exhibition on the Wednesday,  and maybe Thurdsay Morning if there is demand.

https://www.gameofthronesexhibition.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR1gPfw71wCnUohot73t-uUI2g2njWHUatYm7M6zUbzh9wFb8f3m5ZEIKH8

There is a Group discount but group bookings are not open yet.   So I can't give info yet.

 

On Sunday the 25th there is the TitanCon Coach trip.   It hasn't been officially announced so plans may change but we are planning to Visit the Giants Causeway and other locations in the North of Northern Ireland.   So if you are planning an excursion to say Tollymore forest.  or Castle Ward you won't risk doubling up.

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