Team Fun: Rafting

I've been rafting altogether once in my life and despite the rafting itself being very enjoyable the experience as a whole was traumatic. Mainly because the Finnish summer decided to show it's full wrath to us all day long with literally pouring rain on our necks. On top of that, because of a storm couple days previously, there were fallen tree trunks lying across the river and we had to carry the boats over them. What made bad even worse was the day's meal of mac and cheese, which is one food that I truly hate! 

This time I felt confident in the fact that the trip would be much more successful an experience than that time 10 years ago. 36 degrees, sunshine and such a wide river that no tree would ever reach from one shore to the other. 






A bus took us over the border to Hainburg, Austria. Behind the castle there we found canoes ready and waiting. A quick safety reminder (in Slovak of course....), life vests on and boats in the water!

I was a bit nervous about rafting in the Danube, knowing how horribly strong the current is. But there was no possibility for tipping the boat over so that gave me a bit more confidence. 




When we got to the Austrian-Slovak border (which is quite noticeable because of the ruins of Devin Castle with the most horrifyingly ugly customs building below it, which was definitely built by Russians judging by the lack of any respect for the surroundings, hehe). There we had a little break.


Devin Castle


Obviously the moment the boats hit the ground everybody found themselves in the water. Who cares about bikinis, I jumped in after everybody else! It was the most challenging swimming experience I have ever had! The river bottom consisted of slimy stones which made balancing quite difficult, but the water wasn't deep enough for swimming until after three meters. And when you finally removed your feet from the steady ground the current took you with it instantly. So, you could have just floated there and the current would have taken you all the way to Budapest.

It was a lot of fun to splash around for a while but when it was time to get back to the boats, things got tricky. We wanted to go this way, the current wanted us to go that way. Maybe with a little less clothing it would have been easier, my shorts were like sails pulling me towards Hungary.




The rest of the way was all about relaxing, letting the river take you towards home and only use muscle strength to dodge passing ships. I saw one ship that would be the best ever for throwing a birthday party on... but my birthday is in January so that's that.



Thank goodness it was 36 degrees, if it had been any less I would be suffering from a proper flu now. But in the sun (some of) our clothes dried up in record time. My shorts were still completely soaked, though. I felt like I had peed myself when we left the river to go for a beer.

It was an awesome day in brilliant company and soooo much fun! This is what team buildings should be like. Recommended to all who have a river in proximity and allowing weathers (that excludes Finland then :D)!

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