As I alluded in my previous entry – last weekend we went on a Team Building trip down the Danube River. The itinerary I had received indicated we would leave the hotel at 7am, arrive around 2pm – take a boat down the river, and then see some caves. That night there would be dinner and then a party. The next day we were to meet for breakfast at 9am and then depart for “water activities” as well as paintball. We were then supposed to do a debriefing type of thing at the hotel and then head back at 8pm.
At 7am sharp I was down in the lobby with the few possessions I had that could possibly pertain to a weekend of outdoor activities. Of course I really only packed clothes for work and a couple of long sleeve tees for the weekends, so I was pretty much at a disadvantage right from the get go. I had been able to purchase a nice new pair of sneakers the day previously at the Nike store in the mall, so at least I had two pairs of shoes for the weekend. This would turn out to be a very good thing.
We boarded the bus and pretty much everybody immediately fell to sleep. I awoke several hours earlier to find we were in the heart of the Romanian countryside. We drove through several small towns and through winding roads amidst fields that had some anemic livestock. It’s incredible how similar countryside is pretty much anywhere you go in the world. If you didn’t see the street signs you wouldn’t be sure if you were in Romania, Belgium, Kansas, or Central Mass.
We finally found our way along the Danube River – my co-workers explained to me that the opposite shore was actually Serbia. As we continued south along the bank of the river we saw a huge statue carved into the side of a large rock off the road.
Everybody tried to take pictures from the bus, but thankfully we pulled over and were able to have a quick break to take pictures while our guide explained what we were looking at. The face in the rock belonged to an ancient Romanian king named
Decebalus who fought the Roman empire several times during his reign. The carving is massive and looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. When I asked how long it had been present the tour leader said “oh they just finished about two years ago.” Hmm. That sort of makes it a little less impressive.
About 20 minutes later we found ourselves at our hotel. The area we were staying at is actually a resort-type place for the wealthy of Timisoara. The rooms all looked out directly on the river, and were very nice. Thankfully I was one of the four people in our group to get a single room. I think they felt a little guilty about not giving me more warning about the trip, that and they probably assume I have some horrible disease that all American’s get in college or something.
After a quick lunch we were broken up into two groups to head out to the caves. One group would take the boat down river while the other group would take the bus to the exit of the cave. We would then cross paths mid-cave and the boat people would take the bus back and visa versa. I was a part of the boat group, and so we loaded up into a slender boat with an outboard and began our journey down the river. It should be noted that it was roughly 50 degrees outside and spitting rain – so really just perfect weather for a nice boat cruise.
As we made our way down the river our guide explained that during the communist rule people tried to swim across the river to Serbia to escape the country. He told us a story of his friends who were traveling the river looking for caves and were detained by the coast guard.
They asked why they had tents and ropes. They explained what they were doing, but the coast guard didn’t believe them. So they took them back to headquarters and tortured them for three days before finally believing their story. Stories like that sort of throw into sharp contrast how fortunate we have been in the US for so long.
We finally stopped at a small cave and looked around. It was just a cavern in the side of the rock, but was nice to see none the less. We then loaded back into the boat and headed further down river to the larger cave. As we drifted into the entrance we saw the other group just emerging from the dark. What we saw sent a shock through all of us on the boat.
They looked like they had just been through war. Many were soaked through with water, covered in mud, and generally looked like they were ready to lie down and die.
There were some brief words of warning about the conditions ahead… a pool of water that had to be waded through… and a broken ladder somewhere along the line. Of course there is zero light in the cave, so we had to share head lanterns. Immediately two things became obvious: The first is that my new shoes were a horrible idea to wear since they don’t have any tread, but rather a smooth sole. The other is that I was carrying a large camera, a backpack, and wearing a long jacket. Needless to say I was going to have a rough time.
I wish I could explain what it was like in the cave, but to be honest it’s all a little blurry at this point.
Once we got moving there was no slowing down. It was almost as though we were trying to race through. We reached the water fairly early and took off our shoes and socks and rolled up our pants to get through it. I of course dropped a shoe with the sock inside at some point. Thus the rest of the trek was down with a wet foot. Later that night when I took a shower at the hotel I had a blister the size of a silver dollar on the bottom of that foot.
As we began to finally emerge back into light there was one final challenge. Somebody had erected a wooden ladder to get out of a particularly steep area. This was well and good except that the ladder’s topmost rung was snapped in half. So you had to climb this ladder, and then somehow find purchase on the wet rocks and get over the lip of this outcropping. Thankfully there were some strong members from our office at the top who were helping haul people over the final hurdle.
Once we made it above that it was a fairly normal walk back to the bus. Once on everybody smelled kind of bad and looked worse for wear. By the time we got back to the hotel my muscles were already asking me what I thought I was doing, and did I not realize that I’m not in any physical shape for this sort of thing. I jumped into a hot shower and that seemed to make things better for a while. Dinner was fine, and the “party” didn’t exactly get rolling as everybody was too tired to even move.
The next day we ate breakfast in silence and then headed out towards the carving of Decebal for paintball and other team building games. Once again we were broken into two groups – one would do the paintball, the other would do the other games. My group played the other games first, and they were nice and easy so no problem. Once it was time to play paintball my team looked to me for advice, since shooting people for sport appears to be a primarily American activity. We tried some different strategies, but our team wasn’t quite as good as the others. Ultimately it was a lot of fun, even if I did get shot at least a dozen times while acting as the runner since the girls refused to get shot.
Back to the hotel where the organizers were asking if we wanted to continue with the program or do something different. The majority of the group elected for going home ASAP since nobody wanted to pull into town after midnight. Thankfully they agreed and we hopped back on the bus after lunch and made it home by 10:30pm.
Overall the weekend was a great success, if not a little surreal. I made it through with my body intact, although my new shoes look like they were buried in the mud for a month. On the way back everybody was happy with the results, but we all agreed that the next team building event should revolve around a local pub and maybe a nice game of darts.
The full gallery from this trip can be found
here.
After leaving work a little after 8pm Anders and I had dinner near the hotel at an Italian restaurant. Unaccustomed to European dining I forgot that it would take several hours. Back to the hotel where I laid awake until 3:30 am while my body told me it was still the middle of the afternoon. Strangest part of the day: staying awake long enough to see the first Monday Night Football game come on live over a local sports channel.
After work I went out with a couple of guys from the office to the “Irish Pub” which inexplicably doesn’t server Guinness. Once again a late night – fell asleep around 3am…
AmEx is able to help where my bank fails. After work the guys all come over to the hotel to hang out and have a drink before we are to meet up with the girls from the office. On the way to the bar my glasses break. We don’t leave the hotel until almost 11pm. The place we go is like an old wine cellar in the basement of an old building in the town square. It’s kind of clubby – but not like strobe lights and techno – just dance music. The team all seem to have a really good time, especially when they ask me to drink some of the local schnapps. It goes down like lighter fluid. In bed at 2am which is sadly an improvement.
In the meantime head to the mall to buy some supplies for the weekend trip. Surprisingly nice mall – lots of American stores and a good food court. Go out for Italian – which is very good although I somehow end up with two plates of Risotto. Get to bed a little after midnight and actually fall to sleep.
