April 27th. Seven Sisters

It would be more fitting to call them 27 sisters in honor of the day, but there were only 7 today. In effort to continue ditching the rain we headed South East today to see Seven Sister's white chalk cliffs. It is a part of the coast between Brighton and Hastings. It would be helpful if the online guide to the park would just say "Go to Birling gap cafe and park there" instead of what it says. We were wondering whether to park earlier given the write ups just walking or relying on the public transport. There are no sidewalks and road is pretty narrow.. and we did not see much public transport. So we just kept going until we arrived at a very large parking lot at the gap with all the other conveniences available.

Very very beautiful. We took some pictures at the gap and then did a short hike along the top of the cliffs. There was a staircase leading to beach at the gap but the gate was closed - high tide was on and no place to walk on the beach - the waves were crushing directly against the cliffs.

Some places on top of the cliff were marked with signs indicating that there is a cliff beyond, others were marked with some wreathes indicating what happens if you go up to there are no signs. And finally there were some unmarked areas of the grass that cheerfully ended nowhere. Interestingly grass appears to be trimmed equally well everywhere. Sheep? I hope..

Isabella said a funny thing that is untranslatable. I am going to still put it here because the chances are we will forget by tomorrow. As we were started to approach the lighthouse "Mayak" we asked her where we were going pointing at it. She said "laryok-maryok." Maybe she did want to say mayak and when she said just sounded right to her, and perhaps she was preparing for a food break. Anyhow, it was totally unexpected and funny.

It was a very pleasant walk and when the wind would die out the only sound in the air was that of the waves crashing against the coast. But the rain finally caught up with us and we ran for the cover. We drove East along the coast admiring the views and stopped at Eastborne for late lunch. 

Eastborne resembles a cross between Hastings and Brighton - a smaller version of the majestic pier and a pleasant boardwalk. There were several Polish delis and one Russian Gastronom, but dining options were minimal and we came out of Chinese-whose-name-escapes-me disappointed. By then it was half past three. We drove back home and stopped at the supermarket on the way to replenish our supplies. 

Good weekend to reconnect with our parents and siblings we have not spoken to in weeks.