What's Hot Right Now?

I’m basing what’s trending right now on what I hear others talk about.

If that’s the definition of what’s hot, then this is the country you should go see right now while it’s in the limelight.

Ireland![The Spur Trail.jpg]

So far in 2018, I’ve talked about travel with a lot of friends and family. It comes up a lot because frankly, most of the time I’m not around having been traveling. When I do return home to Minnesota and catch up with old friends, the first questions are always, “Where have you been?” and “What’s next?”

Currently, I’m a few months post trip and I have no plans for any future travel because my schedule is locked up on a potential Antarctica gig. I’ll have to write another post about that one. I just don’t want to purchase tickets and make plans only to be offered a contract and have to lose out on anything I’d wanted to commit to.

Thusly, I’ve managed to turn a fair amount of conversations towards other’s travels, where have they wanted to go, and where have they been recently. In the last couple months I’ve tuned in on some around the world cruising, Alaska cruises, a best friend’s trip to Iceland (which seemed to be on everyone’s mind when I went in 2017), leading groups in Tanzania or New Zealand, and driving campers around Norway.

Each of those were one off conversations. Alternatively, everyone else is talking about Ireland.
During a recent research study (I was the guinea pig), my chair mate praised Ireland, citing transformative experiences with men and dogs that materialized out of the mist and subsequently disappeared. Another person I met that same time period, had studied abroad there for a semester attending theatre at least once a week (theatre major) and lauded it’s quality of arts and landscape. That week I decided should I hear another high claim for Ireland, I would put it higher on the list of potential travel places.

A few days later I attended an art festival in Minneapolis, the Uptown Art Fair. One of the photographers I found, and subsequently brain picked, told me Ireland was his favorite country and it was the only one he returned to yearly if not more often.

The wedding I shot last weekend, both bridesmaids were sisters and had gone there within the last year. I got an email from “Thrifty Traveler” (https://thriftytraveler.com) for flights around $350 RT to Ireland. In between those encounters, Ireland has come up again, and again.

I decided my random encounters of the million kinds weren’t enough to justify a trip there. I had to do some research to see what in the world of tourism was going on in Ireland. Is it blowing up in popularity for some reason? Or is this the situation where you you never noticed a particular model of vehicle, until you bought one and they start to appear everywhere. Well I’m not going to bore you with numbers. What I found is shocking, Ireland did not show up on the “Top of…” lists for any of the websites I read through. However, according to their own research, Ireland tourism is up year over year. More nights spent by foreigners, more money is spent, and more people are visiting. So there is that.

I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but officially Ireland is on the list and I am going to make my way there. I’d like to try practicing my accent so that I could give it a go of fooling the locals into thinking I’m one of them. That should be a Youtube channel I’ll make one day. Fooling locals into thinking I belong. I’m sure the reactions would be wonderful. With that thought in mind, I bid you adieu.