Four good reasons to visit Ireland

The most annoying part of planning our international travel is the paperwork: applying for a visa, to be specific. Which is why, if we are getting visa-free travel to a country, we must grab it. No, Ireland is not offering us Indians a visa-free entry. But it is doing the next best thing: it is allowing Indians to visit on a UK tourist or business visa. The rule will be applicable from July 2011 to October 2012, and this is what it means: •    You don’t need a separate Irish visa to visit Ireland if you have a multiple entry British visa. If you have a UK tourist or business visa or residency, you are now free to cross over to the Republic of Ireland. •    You must first enter via UK. But then you can drive, fly or boat it to Ireland as many times as you want (depending on the terms of your visa). •    Here are your savings: 60 euros (the Irish visa fee), hours of painful paperwork and red tape, and the bloody anxiety of whether you will get the visa or not. And here are three more good reasons to visit Ireland. Irish Pubs: Now Irish pubs populate the world, but in Ireland the Guinness beer, Irish whiskey, Irish coffee (a coffee with an added shot of the whiskey of your choice) and Irish cream (a smooth blend of cream, whiskey and sugar served in a glass over ice) can be enjoyed with some “craic”. Pronounced as “crack” it refers to the boisterous atmosphere with which the Irish fill their pubs. James Joyce “Ulysses”: If Irish pubs are the biggest cultural export of Ireland, James Joyce’s modernist classic Ulysses is second in line. Thousands of English literature graduates descend onto Dublin every year to retrace the steps of Leopold Bloom on that not-so-fateful day of June 16th, 1904. Landscapes you have never seen: There is something rugged and unspoilt about the landscape of Ireland. If there was ever a country built for jaw-dropping drives, it is Ireland. For more about its landscape, go here. And then, there are the charming, friendly Irish people with those sexy accents (remember, Colin Farrell). So if you are planning to visit UK anyway, it is a good time to fit Ireland in!