Tuesday 25 April 2017

Old Red Wine

Eurohash minus 73 days. Today marks the 35th birthday of the Vindobona Hash House Harriers which is quite an achievement (Hashy birthday!). Old Red Wine, well past its prime. May have to finish it after crossing the line. Most of the Ostrich Hashers who run with the World's Worst these days have either not been born or were completely unaware what Hashing or the Hash House Harriers were or meant back then. (What did YOU do in 1982?) The Warsaw Hash which is Se* Energys and my Mother Hash was founded in April of 1983 and we joined their fold during an assignment in Poland in 1988.

Over the years here in Vienna the runs starting from the beloved Grüß Di A Gott Wirt have become a joyful tradition to both mark the start of the monday evening runs and the birthday run of the VH3. For the third time over the last ten years (starting off with the 25th anniversary) the great Vienna Pipes performed their art in the circle, there were fireworks, special runners like Beanman (only active Hasher that did run # 1 in Vindobona, see the very first  Rehash here) and Mindphuck turned up, other survivors from Hashing year #1 here are Lord Glo-Balls, OVH and Cardinal Munk, OVH.  As in every year, the trail led all the way up to the Hermannskogel (highest elevation point in Vienna) where numerous bottles of Sekt and tasty Chocolate cake were had and the inevitable anthem Tiny Bubbles by Don Ho was sung.

A special credit goes to the helping hands MOM and Mind the Gap who assisted Cardinal Munk in carrying the heavy load (lots of Sektbottles with lotsa kilos of Icecubes) up that fateful hill. And, of course, to Stefan, owner of the Grüß Di A Gott Wirt who always sacrifices his and his staffs free evening to be able to celebrate with us. Pics and (hopefully) a video of the Vienna Pipes taking it away will be posted when they are available.




Friday 21 April 2017

Splendido

This song is posted for no particular reason apart from this gentleman being my favourite singer from Italy, and this song apparently had been inspired by another renowned musician.


Simple Expression

Eurohash minus 77 days. Eastermonday run in the midst of an amazing fortnight with weather conditions from plus 20 degrees down to a definite snow storm two days ago. These events have become a regular tradition that Ice Queen and Slush Puppie have established over the years and (no exaggeration from my side) these runs are getting constantly better. Starting off from the far side of the Perchtoldsdorfer Heide, the trail was  constantly leading uphill – as usual with Eastereggs hidden at the checkpoints – and by the Parapluiberg Schutzhaus and even further and steeper uphill eventually to top at the Kammersteiner Hütte, crowned by an impressive view of the entire region atop a windy observation tower.  Lots of wood garlic around and the highpoint for those not too fond of Eastereggs was without doubt the Eggnog (Eierlikör) stop. A creamy affair by all means.


The Famous Pimpsqueak and...

his newly acquired bunch of best drinking buddies

Nice circle after a truly well planned run. My compliments to the Hares.

Slush Puppie and Ice Queen






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Not a suitable type of tiny bubbles for our 35th birthday run on Monday, let's stick with the Sekt instead.

Saturday 15 April 2017

What we do here

Eurohash minus 83 days. Bringing back the World's Worst to lovely Siegenfeld after quite some years was a fine task by the Hares Casting Couch and 2Bob and they are herewith given credit by me and all those who love rolling hills, vast forests and the feeling that a nations capital is still a mere 30 kilometres away.

Due to very fair weather parking outside the main place, parking near the Gasthaus Skilitz (starting point) was very hard to find (tho they extended their car parking space by 300 percent since we were there last time) and so Se* Energy and I were late, just a little, and had to do a live start together with the agreeable crowd of more than 30. The trail quickly split into a runners and a walkers part, leading past a remarkable assembly of houses in a tiny place called Rosental. One of the local houses had lots of artsy looking statutes decoratively places in the garden, and when the sluggish Moron brothers will have uploaded the pics from this run we all can peruse a little exhibition.

Example 1

Example 2

Ice Queen was lamenting that she could not pic up enough wood garlic (Lieber hunger ich mit Leerbauch, als ich ess' etwas mit Bärlauch) and Hare Casting Couch asked if I was carrying my telephone with me ( I did) for she was concerned that the walking group got lost. Second Hare 2Bob already left to look for them at the trail's tail end when a call to another Harriette (Se* Energy in fact) revealed that the walkers must have been MUCH FASTER than the rest and were ahead of ze runners.

In the end it was on back to the carpark and the usual circle proceedings. Towards the end of the circle  Chucker F*cker started to whine that JustAnn had been running with our chapter for a year now and she still was not bestowed a Hash Name (SO? The time is right when the time is right!) and in a move that surprised us all he bent his knee and proposed to JustAnn ("So here is to Mrs. F*cker!).




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On After at the nearby Gasthaus where they waiters seemed to have already had a stressful day ("So you made a reservation in the garden? Tough, you see that all of our 6 tables in the garden that would easily hold 150 are taken. Go inside"!)

We as a mini group of four grabbed the one empty table at hand and within half an hour most Hashers were sitting outside after their lunchtime guests had left. There is plenty of room to improve here, dear Gasthaus staff! Memories from past visits are certainly fond.



Wednesday 12 April 2017

Flotsam

Eurohash minus 86 days. Last week saw the aforementioned Steiermarkdorf at the Rathausplatz in Vienna city centre and as usual, loyal followers of this event were met and a few of them pictured for posterity.  Outside conditions were wet and a little windy. A real "Herzenssteirer" cannot but neglect the bad weather (for there is only the wrong clothing) and fill his heart again with joy, year after year.



A local cardinal im Zirbenbett (look that term up)

Warmup Workout while wanting White Wine

 A local tradition are the Ratschen.(Easter ratchets). One such "Ratschenbauer" always makes his way up the capital of Ostrichland to dipslay his artful products (as seen below). 


The Ratschenbauer

Meanwhile there was a smallish Food Festival festuring Lower Austrian Products taking place not too far from the Steiermarkdorf. Does that sign look like they were encouraging their visitors to become waste divers?

 A nearby "Genussfest", hopefully not straight out from the Garbage Container



Eventually, our local Cardinal had to spend a few days in hospital to get treatment for, well, whatever. To speed up his recovery, a well known nurse swung by and he was given an injection with what looks like pure love to me.

He has to admit it's getting better!

Where is the Hash Context? Due to miserable weather the TGIF crowd whimped out from their original intention to sample some great white wine from Styria and convened (presumably whining) at a nearby Irish Pub on Friday evening.






Wednesday 5 April 2017

Urban Jazz

Apart from the nearing Eurohash in three months and the changing seasons (into springtime that is), tomorrow will see the opening of an event that lasts but four days every year and in the evenings is literally taken by storm by the Vindobonians (not just the Hashers). I am talking about the Steiermarkdorf, a four day extravaganza that was started in 1996 and as far as I am aware is the most cleverly made presentation of one Austrian province for another one.

This festival includes touristic as well as wine and dine specialities, you can have your own Lebkuchenherzen made and as much as the Schweizerhaus opening it symbolizes a bit the transition from winter (?) into spring. Mentioning the Steiermark, what has become of the Graz Hash? Reminiscing about all those runs that I have taken part within Vienna, areas like the Cobenzl, the Leopoldsberg and the Kahlenberg (infamous V4+1 run in 1997, 5 hours long!), the Grüß Di A Gott Wirt as well as all those Ski Week Solidarity runs either in the quarters around the Karlsplatz or near the Votivkitche, the Donaupark as much as the wonderful Lobau area and the Prater with our very own Hash House the Gösser Bierinsel gives the World's Worst a wealth of opportunities to choose locations from. And these are just places within the Vienna city limits. What I am trying to say is: If you have booked to come to Eurohash in July you will get your money's worth. Vindobona and its surroundings are fantastic places to run and party. 

Es wird ein Wein sein!


Tuesday 4 April 2017

No big mysteries

Eurohash minus 94 days. Spring has arrived in full splendour and it certainly is most lovely to be able to wear shorts and shades again. The Eastermarkets in the city centre have opened up their stalls again (allowing one for the occasional dwink) and last Sundays run was O Sodomia's out in Eichgraben, somewhere west of Vindobona.

Following a road called the Dreiwasserstraße there was a tiny car park literally just coming out of a raulway underpass and a few of us squeezed their automobiles next to one another, well I confess, I wanted to block at least two spaces with our Hashmobile when Slush Puppie asked me kindly to park the car "orschlings" (look that term up if you can find it) so others could park next to us.

I assume that the Hare lives out there somewhere, given that she really seemed to know what she was doing directionwise ;-)  One was pleasanltly surprised to run along a coherent trail where  the general direction was a steady one uphill (and, of course, back downhill again towards the end). With the usual suspects Tonto, Justin Beaver, Pussy Schumi, Tickpleaser, Free Willie and FRBimbo Casting Couch there was no chance to shine as a Front Runner (no competition here), the thing I really enjoyed was the pleasant forest area, even with the adjacent motorway A1. With the first line and the double line after checkpoints often being several hundred metres apart (no kidding here) there was nothing left but to run and earn the beer after the run. Talking about which, the way back to the cars was leading through the short railway underpass again when THUMP a sound of bad car parking  could be heard.

THUMP at the end of the tunnel


What had happened? MOM, as well as a few others wanted to park his vehicle nearer to all the other ones, yet when he easily found a place to park he obviously missed the sight of Joysticks mobile behind his own one and the result was THUMP and the noise was much louder than the scratch that this minor collision caused.   And yes, there were some snivelers who whined about the ticks they brought home after the event.

Reconnaisance of trails for the Eurohash is underway, as I could tell from a special Down Down that had been awared to all those we were out in the fields already. The route that our group of four had reccied the day before the run looks promising, more about that in one of the next postings.



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