2009-07-11 47 19

Location

Alsónémedi, Hungary

Participants

Expedition

The Planing

Some of thepiguy's friends were taking a trip to Budapest for the weekend to see the sights of the beautiful city and take in some culture. thepiguy decided to tag along so that he could abandon them at the first opportunity and go Geohashing.

thepiguy emailed Tom, the only local Geohasher he could contact, at the beginning of the week and was ecstatic to find that Tom was not only alive, but also free for Geohashing! This meant that thepiguy could meet yet another awesome Geohasher and as an added bonus, wouldn't die alone in the gutter of a small Hungarian village.

After a nail bitting Friday HashOclock, and a series of emails a plan was made for the Saturday coordinates that lay less than 25km from the center of Budapest.

The Traveling

thepiguy Würzburg Friday night at 21:00 for a ~~pleasant~~ tiring 12 hour train ride to Hungary. That was longer than his flight from Canada.

Once safely in Budapest thepiguy quickly deserted his friends and set out to meet new ones. He met Tom at the Subway station and they headed off towards the geohash.

We first took the Subway to the bus station and then a local bus the rest of the way. Tom showed me around the city, while we were waiting and to a very nice park at the bus station.

We arrived at the village without incident and walked along the quiet streets towards the hash point. We met quite a few dogs, and got quite a few strange looks (I think they knew I wasn't from around there!)

The Hash

The coordinates were in someones backyard, so we walked to the front of the house to see if anyone was home. Tom had prepared a cover story involving the two of us checking local map accuracy. We knocked on the gate, but were only greeted by several barking dogs.

We decided to check out the property behind this one, and were pleasantly surprised to find it unoccupied by people, fences or even a house! We walked up to the back fence of the first property, and got within suitable GPS accuracy.

Pictures were taken, Nibs were had: another successful Geohash!

The Return

The two hashers walked back the way they came and stopped for some ice cream before catching their bus back to town. Oh wait. The schedule at this bus stop was different than the one Tom had printed. And the next bus wasn't for 3 hours. Hmmm...

20 minutes, Tom's thumb, and a friendly truck driver later, the two Geohashers were hitchhiking back to Budapest! Their friendly driver (who's name thepiguy never asked because, although he had complete confidence in Tom, he had never hitchhiked before, let alone in a foreign county, and he figured it was best to keep quiet) drove them all the way back to the Subway!

The Lunch

Once back in Budapest Tom invited thepiguy back to his house for lunch. thepiguy accepted and had a great time talking with Tom and seeing where he lived.

The Epilogue

thepiguy had an amazing time in Budapest and an even better time Geohashing with Tom. Not many people would answer an email from a stranger on the internet, and even fewer would agree to meet them at a subway station, show them around the city, and bring them home for lunch!