July 16, 2024
After a very long year working remotely and without seeing each other for a very long time, our team at WPRiders finally met again. And what a cool experience this was! This time we chose a nice place in Bistrita-Nasaud county, Colibita – the sea from the mountains!
This year we had 10 enthusiastic participants joining our adventure in the wild! Marius, the WPRiders founder, was unable to participate due to last-minute plan changes and was greatly missed.
What did we do?
Thursday – Colibita
Everybody arrived in Bistrita, traveling from all over the place! 4 came from Bucharest by plane to Cluj, one came from Cluj, one from Arad, one from Sibiu, one from Bacau, and one from Tirana, Albania. If you count and notice there are 9, let me tell you that the 10th (which is actually me) lives in Bistrita, so she was already there!
We went together from Bistrita to Colibita to our rented accommodation, a beautiful place by the lake. We had two cottages and each one enjoyed their room!
The first night was beautiful and we just talked a lot, trying to cover up for the whole year that passed since our last meeting.
Friday – ATVs
Last year was about a lot of activities, this year we had some, but we were more eager to spend time together. On Friday after breakfast, we went on an ATV ride with the most professional team from Colibita! They took us on a 3-hour drive from the lake to the top of the mountain, through the forest and the wildness took our breath away.
The views were spectacular, we saw deer, we passed through a sheepfold, and had lunch in the middle of nature! Everyone was thrilled and enjoyed the ride a lot. Our guide made a complete tour by preparing some local food for us and told us a lot of stories about the area.
Back at our location, we enjoyed the kayaks and used them to navigate (not like true sailors) on the lake. The lake is impressive and everyone said it’s a wonderful place. We used the time to talk, and get to know each other better – some colleagues met the others for the first time, and to play games together.
Saturday – Airsoft
Saturday was tougher because we wanted to try airsoft and our airsoft guide took us to a professional site on top of the mountain. That place is for airsoft experts (not like us) and we discovered it’s harder than we initially thought. However, we finished the game and the host said (just to be nice) that we played like true professionals.
After that exhausting activity for some IT professionals, we took a boat drive to enjoy the lake. For two hours we traveled around and heard stories and legends about the lake. Our boat host was young but very informed and was able to answer all our questions.
Sunday – Home
Like every good thing, it has come to an end. Our fairy tale ended, the spell was gone and we realized we needed to go back to our homes.
However, we decided to have one last lunch together (until the next time we meet) and we did that in the historical center of Bistrita. We had a great time together laughing and sharing the good and the bad of this experience.
Then we split, each going home.
In Conclusion…
What did we learn this year? We are different and we celebrate that. We don’t like the same things and we have different tastes, but this didn’t keep us from trying new things and going out of our comfort zone.
We trusted each other by making teams on the ATV, by sharing the kayaks in teams of two, or by fighting against each other on a battlefield.
We were able to discover a lot of new things about each other, especially because the work is isolated and working from home has its not-so-good parts.
We discovered we are stronger than we initially thought, we discovered that we can see beyond the differences between our cultural heritage and be a strong and bonded team.
We discovered we missed each other a lot and cherished the limited time we had together.
Here’s to one more year of good things that we will celebrate next year!
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