2008-12-24 49 12

This is the first hash to fall within Regensburg's city limits since the publication of the algorithm. It was precisely inside a "Fristo" beverage depot, near the Donaueinkaufszentrum, the town's oldest and largest shopping mall. Because of Christmas Eve, opening hours were 8:00 to 14:00 on this overcast, dull wednesday.

dawidi

As usual, I overslept and hit the road nearly an hour later than planned... hey, I copied that from the last hash in this graticule, and it fits here as well!

Anyway, I arrived on location at 9:00 in the morning. I had checked out the place the night before, and confirmed that what Google's outdated satellite imagery indicates as a parking lot was now a shop building - an ALDI supermarket with a separate Fristo beverage depot.

While parking my bike, I saw a man inside, talking on a cellphone and then eyeing me suspiciously. I put on a friendly face, and went inside. "Can I help you?" - "Uh... well, yes, but differently. It has to do with this day, but it's not about Christmas. It has to do with this shop, but it's not about drinking. And I'm not trying to sell anything to you.". He seemed curious enough, so I very roughly explained the bit about an artist from the US and expeditions to random coordinates. I asked if I could take a photo at a point somewhere between the crates. He didn't want to allow that, because of rules from the franchise, but later agreed, under the condition that no price tags be legible in the published picture. So I just snapped a quick self-portrait.

We went back to the front, I produced my Eeepc and showed him the comic and some wiki pages and explained in a little more detail, also about the lottery-like chances of the coordinates hitting his shop. Then a customer came in, so I left.

Since I had planned to do a Hashcard attempt, I then went to the mall looking for a suitable postcard. After about an hour, I left, because all I had found were postcards with the standard tourist views of the old town, the famous medieval stone bridge, and the cathedral. Nothing even came close to include the business district to the northeast where the hash was.

On my way home, I made a detour to the stone bridge to take another picture (to commemorate the "first hash in town" event), and looked into a small souvenir shop nearby. What I found there seemed to be about my age (I verified that now) and suitable for one of the yet unclaimed achievements. What it was exactly, will not be revealed for a while, but I can say that it caused me to make another detour to the central train station, buy something there, then sit for a while in a bus shelter with the Eeepc on my lap, and then ride home, pausing once more, already within sight of my apartment block.

The hash was 1.16 km from my office - 160 meters too far for a couch potato honorable mention, but almost ;-)