The Baltic Sea, the fresh air and great company (aka our Ruby on Rails application development specialists) made for the perfect setting for our team retreat! Our latest company retreat was a wonderful 3 days in Tricity, Poland, spent packing in as much fun as possible.
Every year for company retreats we try to visit a different part of Poland; this time we hopped across the famous three cities in Tricity: Gdynia, Gdańsk and Sopot, each day experiencing a new city and new attractions. Our Ruby on Rails application development specialists retreat in a nutshell: crazy activities, chilling out, laughing and learning new things. More details and photos below - enjoy reading! :)
Day 1 - Electric Go-karts in Gdańsk
On each of our retreats we organize an activity that will get our competitive juices flowing, so go-karting was the perfect choice. We chose the track in Gdańsk; luckily it was placed in a hall - after we jumped out of our taxis it started to rain cats and dogs. Our adventure started with a small brief about safety, rules of using the track and handling the vehicles. Some of the team admitted that it wasn’t their first time on the karts and some of them even took the gloves - nice strategy!
The first round was a chance for us to get familiar with the track and the karts. The electric version of go-karts gives the owner the chance to control everyone’s power and speed, so if someone behaves in a dangerous way, he can make them slower or even turn off the vehicle. The 2nd round was a serious race, because the result decided who got to the final stage. It was really speedy, everyone felt a big adrenaline rush and it was heaps of fun! Luckily, no one crashed and everyone played fair. The guys from the staff informed us that we were pretty good compared to other groups who visit them - which of course made us very proud of ourselves.
Results from the comp were so, so close! Finally, we selected the winners - just look at their smiles in the photo:
One more photo of the whole team together, everyone is satisfied!
On arriving to the Gdańsk city centre, we realized that it was particularly beautiful and decided to find a good view point - so the big wheel seemed like the natural choice. The ride took about 15 minutes and it was enough to see almost every part of Tricity - and shoot a few nice photos as well. Some of us decided to stay safely grounded instead and chill out on the sunbeds below - enjoying the beautiful weather and fresh Baltic air.
*Inside the cabin of the big wheel*
*Chilling out under the big wheel (and feeling safe on the ground)*
Afterwards, it was time to take in the rest of the sights of the city, checking out the beautiful river, monuments, street art, cafe scene, and architecture - along with plenty of snaps taken along the way of course. We even decided to do a spontaneous pit stop at the irresistible Art School of Gdańsk, where we admired pieces of modern art. In the evening was play time, where we brought a few board games to play in a bigger group - a super fun night after a big day touring around the city.
Day 2 - Sopot and sushi workshop time
The whole team was excited for day 2, because as Samurai (Ronin) we wanted to master the art of sushi making. The workshop started with a sushi history lesson and some basics about different sushi types. For example we’ve learned that to get the highest possible Japanese sushi certification, you have to work on your skills for 20 years! The second part of training was safety rules - we were using very sharp knives after all. We had the opportunity to prepare 3 kinds of sushi: hoso maki, futo maki and California maki.
*Action!*
*Finally, eating time*
The last part of the workshop was a contest. We could choose our favorite kind of sushi and prepare it in the most precise way - only the appearance, not flavor, was judged. We were fully focused; everyone wanted to win. Some of us created crazy art installations, whereas some chose precision as their main strategy. Finally, precision and simplicity were the winners - the most tidy rolls made using basic rules won! Congrats to our CEO Cyprian and our Ruby on Rails developer Mateusz!
*Our CEO, Cyprian - 1st place! 👏*
*Our Ruby on Rails Developer, Mateusz - 2nd place 🙌*
Each of us received a Sushi Master certification and while it’s not required to succeed in your career at iRonin it’s still very useful! At the very end we had a photo taken in our company-branded aprons:
*Sushi-making Samurai, looking awesome together!*
Next up was visiting the famous pier and the city center, still with perfect weather. We spent most of the afternoon on the pier which was great, chilling out together, chatting and laughing - priceless!
4 of the team decided it was time to do something a little more physical and so they rented bikes. They had a fun 14 km ride and then could eat anything for dinner with a clear conscience! The dinner itself was sturgeon - a tasty fish which was also a kind of attraction, considering its impressive size. That was our last night spent together and it was hard to think about leaving the next day.
*Big, fresh sturgeon!*
See you next time!
Sunday’s breakfast was goodbye time and some fun post-retreat analysis with the team. Everybody agreed that the weekend was great and we can’t wait for the next one - we are looking back at the photos and videos still today! We hope this has brought you just a little taste of the atmosphere we got to experience on our retreat. If you feel like you would like to join us on our expert web application developers company retreat and participate in our everyday challenges, then please leave us your application, since we are planning retreats full of fun again soon.
