2012-06-24 47 8

Location

The Altstetten district in Zurich, close to the train station.

Participants

Plans

As it goes, an elderly couple has invited Calamus for an afternoon garden tea party rather close to the hashpoint, which should allow him to reach it by 4pm without much effort. He seems to have become kind of lazy.

Expedition

Even if you're living in your country's biggest city, it doesn't necessarily happen every day that a hashpoint actually falls within the city borders. Especially if that city is Zurich and has an area of little more than 90 km² (about 35 sq mi).

On 2012-06-24, however, the geohash decided to appear right in the Altstetten district of Zurich, not too far from the train station. This, along with the fact that he was invited to a tea party next to the hash a little earlier, was enough to awaken Calamus from his slumber.

Doubting whether a comparable occasion would appear again soon, he decided to make it a Walk Geohash. Obviously, this included walking to the tea party. It was halfway to Altstetten when Calamus checked the GPS's battery to discover he hadn't saved the coordinates correctly. Since he didn't have the time to turn back (he was being expected, after all) and Crox's server didn't respond his request, he decided to make the most of it and declare it an involuntary No Batteries Geohash. Luckily for him, he had memorized the spot on the city map.

The elderly couple who had invited Calamus was waiting eagerly to show him around their wunderful allotment garden. This kind of garden is rather popular in Switzerland, as occupying a house while having less than, say, six children is considered antisocial, which is why most Swiss live in flats and therefore dont' have a big enough garden. This lot of allotments, however, was to be leveled in a few months, in spite of the leaseholders demonstrating in front of the land owner's house multiple times and the President of Town herself asking him not to do it (which had totally nothing to do with her wife being one of the tenants).

However, the allotment was still in the hands of the couple for the time being, who had really made it a piece of heaven, only with vegetables. She had been a successful photo model back in America, earning her enough cash to go on vacation in Switzerland. Once there, she "kinda failed to see a reason to ever go back" and married her ski teacher (this has been a cliché ever since - or maybe even back then). They soon moved to Zurich, probably because it was the only place on Earth where they could have a train going through their living room (© by relet). Or because it is really beautiful.

After having a terrific and almost completely self-made meal and unsuccessfully trying to explain where he was going and why, Calamus left for the hashpoint. It turned out he had gravely underestimated the distance, so what should have been a peaceful walk along the street turned into a speedrace. Being overtaken by a bus every five minutes made Calamus reconsider his Walk Geohash, as he had announced to reach the hash at 4pm exactly, and Swiss people take punctuality very seriously. This didn't only matter in case somebody else was actually going to the hashpoint, but also towards Calamus himself. Turning up too late equaled not turning up at all; he had been taught that much from his childhood. Nevertheless he resisted the temptation at every station and made it to the hash with barely half a minute to go.

For once, Calamus was happy nobody else was at the hashpoint, because he had to be looking ridiculous, running onto an empty parking lot while panting like an asthmatic with rabies. He took a few photographs (one of them portraying a threatening message which would have honestly intimidated Calamus if he'd been a tree) and then went home again. On foot.