People coming, people going…
This week began with another birthday celebration here in BIG BERRY. This time Alberto, from the BB Team, turned 31 on the 31st of July. So, to celebrate this great guy we took him on a surprise trip to Plitvička Jezera, the National Park famous for its beautiful 16 lakes and network of falls that connect them. Afterwards we had a delicious dinner in Kmetija Župančič, featuring freshly grilled trout, local carp fish, and a variety of salads. It was a perfect treat for our Exploring Kiwis, bloggers Sarah and Nathan from New Zealand, who liked the food just as much as our company.
We also had our first big shift of interns happen this week. As we said good-bye to some of our veteran interns, we welcomed three new ones. It was strange to see people that were with us from the beginning leave, but it’s just as exciting to welcome new people and incorporate fresh ideas. So, now the team is a very eclectic mix of Croatians, Spaniards, Vietnamese, Turkish, Americans and a Slovakian. Although it’s always sad to say good-bye, we wanted to make sure the new guys felt just as welcome as we felt when we arrived to BIG BERRY. We all had a bonding experience at Metlika’s music festival, “Over the Fence”, held this past weekend. We all had a great time and boogied to some great beats from local and more international musicians. One of the highlights moments from the festival was during the performance by Roots in Session, from Ljubljana. Just when it seemed that the performance would be cancelled due to the rain storm, the whole crowd gathered around the DJ booth for some protection from the rain and we all ended up dancing the whole night through the thunder storm. The atmosphere of the event was amazing.
We were excited to have the honour of hosting Matko and Hrvoje, known as 2DP photography, again over the weekend for BIG BERRY’S Bodypainting event. The photography geniuses helped us document our first bodypainting in the camp, which turned out to be pretty cool thanks to the skilled hands of Jasmina Bator, the bodypainting artist. We also welcomed back Dušan, our yoga and gong master, for a soothing gong session. Both the BB team and our guests laid down in the grassy field beside the BBQ house and enjoyed an hour long meditation. It was very relaxing for us all.
No weekend can end properly without a good BBQ session and our new American interns wanted to give us a little taste of a classic American Barbecue. The girls, Karina and Mollie, worked hard to whip us all up some freshly made burgers, vegan hotdogs, potato salad, cut up some fresh watermelon, and even tried their hand making some Ćevapčići. Karina’s potato salad was hit, we listened to some American hit music, had a couple of beers and burgers then got ready to celebrate the opening of the 2016 Olympics with some archery.
Yup, you heard us right… at BIG BERRY resort we’re having our very own Olympic games! This week our sporting events started with Archery in Gradac. We learned the essentials of proper bow handling, how to aim, and soon we were hitting targets (granted, not always hitting the bullseye). We had our own competition and Pero, one of our local interns, came in first place with 35 points! Keep track of the Big Berry games and our other adventures here on our blog.
See you next week xoxo — BB
Written by Vita Polančec & Mollie Leal
