The second by population city in Republic of Ireland is Cork. Population is around 120 thousands people. Though for Ireland it's already a lot. Despite the name (from Irish it translates as "marsh") the city has a significant role in history. It was constantly switching between English and Irish domination. Though around beginning of 20 century is was on the main centre of Irish resistance till 1921 when Republic of Ireland finally separated from United Kingdom.

Even near this nice sign to obey the rules a lot of people steal cross the road as they like, not as designed. In general it doesn't look Irish people like to obey the rules. It's absolutely normal to leave a car on a road with one line and go to the shop near by. And all others have to pass this car on a line with oncoming traffic. Well I didn't see that in Dublin and Cork, but in the other town always.

There is quite a number of ancient buildings in Cork survived till our days. One of such a building is Red Abbey Tower. Back in old days, around 700-800 years ago, Cork was surrounded by a huge wall. Nowadays there is no wall anymore, but still there is a gate (and a tower).

And a lot of churches. Though no surprise here. The population is pretty religious. Amount of Catholics sometimes is more than 84.

Though there are also non-catholic churches. E.g. Church of Ireland, it's a kind of a branch of Church of England. One of examples is Church of St. Anne. I was surprised that every visitor can play a melody on bells. They even have notes. Though I don't think locals are really happy about it. But what surprised me even more is an open LGBT support. They even had a flag of community inside. Very unusual for a church.

After ringing bells it is possible also to go up a tower and look at the city.

While I was observing the city from the tower, I noticed, that people like to do some stuff at the roof. Like walking with dog or just sun bathing. Looks like such a sunny day I finally caught is not the often here. The average temperature during the year is within a small range: +5 in winter and +17 in summer.

Not far from a church there is a nice park on a hill. From here it's also a nice view on a city. Btw, some people come here prepared: with own chair.

A lot of streets are quite narrow. Houses are in different colours. Looks interesting. Somehow Irish.

The town is located on some kind of hills. It's not that easy to walk there. Though even on a car it might be really hard. Especially on a low power car. It reminded me hills in San-Francisco.

In the evening it's still crowdy on streets, but everything is already closing around 5-6 in the evening.

Even English market, which was visited by English Queen one day, looks already empty. To be honest it's just a usual market, nothing special :)

That's it for Cork and for Ireland this time. It was really cool here, just a couple too rainy days made the impression a bit less than just perfect. Though it was expected anyway.