Week four was a doozy. Extremely fun and rewarding but absolutely exhausting (both mentally and physically). I had the incredible chance to go to Dubrovnik for a work trip this week from Monday- Thursday. Each year my company puts on an all expense paid event to reward our top performers and most engaged employees. Last year the trip was to Maui, this year it happened to be Croatia.. the same month I was in Croatia. Because I was already here, they pulled me down to serve as an extra pair of hands.
What I did:
- Got up at 4:45AM on Monday morning to make sure I didn’t miss my 6AM bus to Dubrovnik.
- Did not in fact miss my bus. Bought my ticket and got on easily.
- Made it to the hotel and met up with my incredible team in the lobby. I forgot how much I missed these ladies! My managing director, Caryn was there as well as a manager on our team, Jen and our events manager Megan.
- Ventured into the city with Caryn and Jen. We stopped by the Italian leather bag store everyone was talking about and I was convinced into buying the most beautiful leather backpack. I was literally salivating over it for the rest of the day. No joke.
The bay through the wall
Boat graveyard, RIP
Dana taking a photo of Jen taking a photo of Caryn #inception
- Ate lunch at hands down the most beautiful restaurant I’ve ever been in. You seriously cannot put a price on these views.
See that table on the right? Yeah we ate there.
- Took the tram up to the top of the mountain for a view down at the city. Dubrovnik is perched on the side of a mountain and seeing it and the vastness of the Adriatic sea from that height was awe-inspiring.
We may or may not have taken this photo just to show off my new bag..
- Attended the first dinner of the event on the terrace at the hotel. The food was good but the company was even better. It was incredible to start to meet all of our attendees- figure out what they do and who they brought as their +1. We have such amazing people working for us- smart, talented and fun seems to be a common denominator.
The view of the party from my room
Sunset from the party
- Tagged along on a Game of Thrones tour on Tuesday morning. Super interesting. 7/10 would recommend. #Whereisthegodoftitsandwine?
Shaaaameeeee!!!
A bay outside of Old Town
- Met up with two friends that came into town- Matt from my program and his friend from Boise, Lauren. While Matt worked (#digitalnomad) Lauren and I were able to explore a little bit of Old Town.
So European, y’all
Hidden gems of Old Town
- Joined my coworkers down at the beach club for another party that evening. The food was amazing and the scenery was incredible but the people definitely made the night. Everyone was open, welcoming and FUN. I’ve legit never seen such a bumping dance floor at a company party before. Not to mention the 20 person conga line. And the saxophone player that was so good I’m pretty sure he could have even breathed life into the Cleveland Browns’ playoff chances.
The location of night two’s shindig
- Did not go on an island-hopping sailboat ride on Wednesday because there was a serious accident in the bay where a police boat accidentally ran over an unlit dinghy carrying 7 local restaurant workers. Two died and they were doing a search and rescue mission the whole day so no boats were allowed out.
- Instead I became Bus Mama to one of the three busses that went wine tasting, oyster tasting and toured salt flats. Not going to lie y’all, I had HANDS DOWN the best bus. We started with an 11:00AM wine tasting at a vineyard about an hour north of the city. All of the vines are grown on terraced hills so everything has to be picked by hand and of course is 100% organic.
Stop 1: Wine tasting
- Took a little boat out to a raft with a table to try oysters freshly picked from the sea. It was super windy but we had a really great time learning about how they farm oysters- apparently they open them a little when they’re young and attach them onto lines to grow for another year (?) or so and then they pull them back out and serve them fresh.
Stop 2: Oysters
Literally could not get any fresher
Because when you’re on a raft in a windy cove of the Adriatic it makes complete sense to try to invert your body 180 degrees #datwaterthough
- ATE MY FIRST OYSTER EVER!!! They look positively disgusting but I liked it enough to eat two of them..
- Checked out some salt flats- apparently wars have been fought over salt in Croatia. Basically they flood these flats with a couple inches of salt water and then use the power of the sun to evaporate all of the water, leaving sea salt behind which is then scraped off and sold. Back in the day 100% of it was used for food, but now only 10% is, the rest is used for roads and other industrial purposes.
It was only after this that they figured out that it was road salt..
- Walked the Walls of Ston. Apparently they’re the second largest man-made wall system after the Great Wall of China. Super impressive.
The wall climbing gang!
The view was well worth the hike up
- Ate dinner in a fortress. Yes, you read that right. We rented out A FORTRESS for dinner. I legitimately dined in the Red Keep. #notreallife
- Said bye to my lovely work fam the next morning and met up with Lauren and Matt to walk the walls around Old City..except breakfast and saying bye took longer than expected and I had a little bit of an uber mishap so instead of walking the walls I literally jogged them. Good times.
Life springs eternal- even in multi-century old walls
A sea of red roofs by the sea
That building up there is where we had dinner the night before
- Slept the entire bus ride back because I was so mentally and physically drained.
- Physically made it to the Split going away party that night but most certainly did not make it mentally. Also successfully pulled off my first irish exit so I could go home and sleep #crucialskill
- Woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to pack for PRAGUE!!!!!!! DDR and I also ventured out to film our first acro flow on a pier near the workspace.
- Did a cartwheel and a handstand and acro on a plane. #casual
- Let me explain: we had a chartered flight from Split to Prague and it was Zach’s birthday. Therefore in true Kai-razy style we got krunk on the two hour flight.
Happy birthday Zach!!!
- Lost and found my passport. When I rushed back on the plane to save Ryan’s bottle of Jack Daniels, my passport fell out of my bag and I spent about an hour waiting for the airport staff to go back onto the plane to look for it. Thankfully karma is amazing and I got it back and didn’t have to be in customs limbo to start Prague.
- Stayed out until the sun came up on our first night in Prague. #whoamI? #how? #what? #whyyyy? The place we went to for dinner, Steampunk, apparently has a club in its basement and the krew went. to. town. So much dancing. So many drinks. So much everything. Honestly not sure how I’m alive rn.
- Relaxxxxed on Sunday and tried to recuperate.
What I learned:
- There is a limit to how much white wine one can drink in one week
- Listen to your body and your mind- if you want to go home, do it
- Planning makes everything better
- Appreciated employees make better employees
- Appreciated people make better people