Living in London started to seem more and more possible. Usually, a big city life includes meeting friends, going out and occasionally getting drunk. But considering the fact that both of us cannot stand such lifestyle for a long, there is always a recently discovered escape plan - 3 hours train ride to a rocky wilderness.

During my latest visit in London we managed to properly exploit a bank holiday by visiting Anna and Tadas who live in Swansea - a coastal city in Wales. Before our visit, I heard a lot of rumors from my dear local Gedas about what a mellow life they live. Laura has recently approved that. Anyway, I can admit that - sea, a cat, a fireplace, a kitchen and a cozy neighborhood was really the blast!

The weather forecast was not promising for our trip. It supposed to be raining a lot which actually was the case for the first day. Nevertheless, Tadas and Anna showed us a local sport crag nearby the sea. Unfortunately, most of the routes were wet, but we did some top-roping. Tadas bravely led and put the TR. Regardless the conditions and my still-not-so-good finger, the surrounding was really mindblowing and surreal.

After visiting the first spot, a decision to go and drink some “cream tea” was made. In the beginning, due to my questionable English, I misheard and I thought that we will drink a regular green tea, but I was wrong. Cream tea is a tea with a bun on which you put some cream which resembles butter. That heavy cream kicked our brains, so we went for a hike which ended up with Tadas climbing a really nice E4 on dry sea cliff and us following him.

Next day, the weather turned to be even worse in terms of high precipitation. Anyway, our hosts were psyched enough to show us more local spots. We drove to another bolted sea cliff which was soaked and checked some bouldering place inside a cave. Afterwards, we finally got to climb at nice boulders at the sea before it started to rain. The evening was rainy, so in order not to fall into a melancholic mood we finished our day eating Welshcakes (highly recommended, but do not overdose!).

Finally, the third day brought us clear and sunny sky. So, not to miss a good opportunity to climb, in the early morning we rushed to Pembroke. According to Gedas, it is the best spot on the planet for traditional climbing at sea cliffs. Tadas and Laura led all the routes I climbed, but even following was sometimes sketchy. We managed to climb Rock Idol, E1 5a, and The Strait Gate, E1 5b.

The long weekend ended up catching a train to London and later flying back to Zurich. Thanks Anna and Tadas for a wonderful weekend!