2019-12-15 global

Location

This Globalhash is located in a forest in Burg Stargard, not far from a riding center.

Country: Germany; state: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (EU:DE:MV); district: Mecklenburgische Seeplatte; Amt: Stargarder Land; municipality: Burg Stargard

Weather: cold (4-6 °C) with light rain (at around 10 a.m.)

Participants

Expedition

Danatar

My plan for the weekend was to go to Berlin to meet some people and found a non-profit registered association on Friday, then visit a museum on Saturday before taking the train home. Well, most of that went as planned, except for the way home. For you see, on Friday evening, after returning to the hotel from a nice string quartet concerto, I checked the coordinates for the weekend's geohashes. There were no hashpoints nearby and I almost closed the site but then I stopped. Ekorren's hashpoint tool has been making problems for a while, with the openstreetmap maps usually not loading but instead showing mostly black rectangles. But now, among many black rectangles there was one small map section that clearly showed the eastern part of Germany. Strange, why does that map have such an unusual zoom setting? It's for the globalhash coordinates! OMGOMGOMG! A globalhash in Germany, I've been waiting 11 years for this! And it's not that far and I don't have anything planned for most of the day! The next steps were very quick and easy: Where exactly is the spot - in a small forest next to a road, no indication of walls or other obstacles; How remote is it - next to a town, that town has a train station; How is the train connection from Berlin - a connection every hour (alternating between a direct line and one with one transfer). Next thing I was looking up a hotel in Burg Stargard (Burg is German for "castle" and Stargard comes from Old Pommerian "old castle", so the town is basically called "Castle Old Castle") so that I could sleep near the spot and visit it early in the morning before returning to Dresden. This felt almost too good to be true...

On Saturday I followed my original plans, visiting the Neues Museum which was nice, then taking a route past the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building to the train station. From there I took the direct connection train that brought me to Burg Stargard within 1 hour and 40 minutes. It was already dark as I walked to the hotel and got a room for the night. A bit later I decided to scout the route to the hashpoint, as I had nothing to do and it was too early to go to bed. I walked through Burg Stargard, then along the dark country road, leaving the road whenever a car came near in order to avoid being run over. Notable sights were a farm with Christmas lights that were so bright they made looking at it painful and then the riding center near the spot where I saw people drink in the club home. The forest with the hashpoint in it loomed on the other side of the road, I didn't enter it because it was both dark and wet after the earlier rain. Then I walked back to the hotel.

On Sunday I woke up rather early, had breakfast, paid the room and started the real expedition. There was slight rain and I was glad I had bought an umbrella in Berlin (it was pink because there was no other color available during the sudden downpour when I bought it. I hate pink). Like in the evening before, I walked along the town's streets, then along the country road. At the riding center horses were being led out of a stable or trained. I left the road and entered the forest in a place where the trees were a bit further apart, then slowly made my way around trees and muddy spots towards the hashpoint, going slightly uphill. Finally I was near the correct coordinates, then a complicated GPS dance brought me to the exact spot. Hooray, I'm at the center of the world! I was very happy, took pictures and put a paper marker on a small branch of a tree, then I decided to not build a marker out of the rotten and wet branches that were lying around. With enough time to spare, I started my way back and towards the train station. When I was halfway through the forest, I saw two people walk in my direction. Who is crazy enough to walk through the forest on a rainy Sunday morning? Could it be that...

Indeed, it was Leidenfrost and Gumbledalf who by chance arrived at the same time. Hooray, unplanned global meetup!!!!!111 Together with them I walked back to the spot, then I watched both of them independently doing GPS dances, reaching two different (but near) spots. As they were able to plan the expedition, their celebration procedures were much vaster: Musical Achievement with ocarina and syrinx, both a world map and a globe, ... By the time we took group pictures my paper marker was soaked through. Then we left the spot and they drove me to the train station as I would have missed the train otherwise. My train ride to Dresden via Berlin was fine.

how the globalhash looked on ekorren's tool (usually the tool just showed a black rectangle)
train station on the evening before
near the hashpoint on the evening before
my hotel
walking towards the spot
riding center
horses
entering the forest
almost there
GPS
very happy globalhasher
marker (still dry for about 5 seconds)
panorama
2019-12-15 global d lgdance.jpg

Leidenfrost and Gumbledalf doing their hashdances
2019-12-15 global d group.jpg

global meetup!
train back home

tracklog: will follow

Jan and Fippe

Day 106 of the Dark Ages.

A Globalhash in Germany! This is a first, not counting the water Globalhash on 2008-07-08.

From Hannover, I took the train to Hamburg. There I met Jan who had taken the train there from Essen (Oldb) via Oldenburg and Bremen. Together we took the train to Burg Stargard via Lübeck and Neubrandenburg. We arrived at 15:38, having been in trains since 6:40 and 7:07 respectively. We would have been there at 14:22, but one train was late.

The train that would take us back would leave at 16:22, so we were in a bit of a hurry, even though the Globalhash was pretty close to the train station, roughly two kilometers. With the help of our inline skates we approached it quickly, eventually arriving at a forest which we had to enter. We located the coordinates and were present at the Globalhash at 16:00 sharp.

We noticed a nearby sheet of paper on the ground saying that the internet had been here. Someone arrived and left before us. Was it Georg, or SastRe.O, or perhaps somebody else? I suppose we will find out once the wiki is online again. We also noticed mysterious map pinned to a nearby tree, which had circles around various locations, and the names of some locations written around the map, some of them crossed through. We could not figure out what it was supposed to mean. Perhaps it was also left by the earlier Globalhasher(s) who might explain this map.

Afterwards, we left the forest and hurried back to the train station where we caught our train. Unfortunately we arrived late in Hamburg, where we parted ways again. I went back to Hannover and arrived home at 00:50. Jan went to Bremen where he was very unfortunately stuck, since no more trains continued to his way home, as the train to Bremen was an hour late. Having spent the night in a hostel, he took a train back home on Monday.

On Twitter, we later learned that the map was left by Gumbledalf and the sign was left by Danatar, who met Gumbledalf and Leidenfrost at 09:50.

The train clock displaying the wrong date and time.
In Lübeck
Our ticket. The Schleswig-Holstein-Ticket also is valid in Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
In Neubrandenburg
Us with inline skaters in the train
Proof
An earlier hasher left this
And perhaps this map
The Globalhash
Surroundings
Surroundings
Surroundings
Surroundings
A few steps inside of the forest
Welcome to Burg Stargard
In Burg Stargard