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Tag: Nash Hash

Transylvania Halloween Hash 2025

The drinking already properly been taken care of, it was time to do something about that running problem of ours! So there was a proper Transylvania Halloween Hash trail on Saturday, and a hangover trail on Sunday, to recover from the Halloween party in between. 

On those hash weekends I usually don’t pick the most extreme and long trail, aptly called the Ball-Breaker Trail. However, this weekend there were two options to choose from, and I considered the short one too short. We were told the Ball-Breaker Trail “includes extreme increases and decreases in elevation, and is only advised for the hashers looking to run, sweat, and cry…” Well, I didn’t cry, but I certainly felt those more than 600 meters of elevation gain, and was full of bloody scratches. And boy, were my knees happy I brought some poles! This was the first trail I ever did that came with a bear warning, by the way…

After dinner we had the Transylvania Halloween Hash Party, once again with Hop Hooligans on draught! 

On Sunday there was a short Hangover Trail, after which the weekend was officially brought to an end with a Closing Circle

Since many of us needed to get back to Braşov, mismanagement had kindly arranged a bus, to take us to the station. 

While most had to catch a train to Bucharest just an hour later, mine was over two hours later, so I dropped of my bag at the station, and headed into town. 

Some coffee at Meron—I hadn’t had decent coffee since Friday—and some last Romanian beers at The Beer Corner — and one to go, to drink on the train. 

Then it was time to head back to Braşov station to pick up my bag, and catch the Dacia Express sleeper to Wien Hbf. No issues this time either, and it seems I won the en-suite lottery! There are only a few rooms with shower and toilet on this train, and it is impossible to select when booking: one just has to wait and see… I lucked out this time, so I will be able to start my day in Wien clean and fresh!

Trip to Transylvania

It was to leave Bucharest again, but not quite Romania! This day was actually mostly about getting from the capital to a tiny village in Transylvania, where we were appropriately welcomed for the Transylvania Halloween Hash 2025!

After one more breakfast at my hotel, packing, and checking out, I had time for one more coffee, at Black Habit, before boarding my train to Braşov. 

To get from Braşov to Șimon we used a Bolt taxi, that conveniently dropped us off at Mama Cozonacilor, the centre of operations for the Transylvania Halloween Hash 2025. My home for the weekend would in fact be an eight minute walk from there, in hotel Casa Albă

And remember where the bar crawl started, Hop Hooligans? They actually sponsored the event, and their beer Crowd Control is available on draught throughout the weekend! 

A Short Trail and a Long Trip

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If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!

The last day of a hash event is usually a short one, to give participants enough time for the voyage home. On the programme: the Hangover Trail!

The Hangover Trail was as usual quite short—just 4,5 km sightseeing through Hamburg today—and followed by a circle to close off the whole weekend.

While the trail only lasted an hour, the voyage home, which should only take 6,5 hours including transfers, would take me 9 hours in the end! Just as well I didn’t book the latest trains, since I would then probably have had to spend the night in Köln! The extended transfer times of 45 minutes in Hannover and of 1,5 hours in Köln did mean I could take my time for a coffee—although just not enough time to go to a specialty coffee place—and a proper meal in Köln: Leberkäse mit Spiegelei, Bratkartoffeln, Krautsalat und süßem Senf (meat loaf with fried egg, fried potatoes, coleslaw, and sweet mustard) at Gaffel am Dom. And I had some Kölsch… I didn’t plan to, but when their first question is “Ein Kölsch?”, it’s hard to say no!

Then, again in true Deutsche Bahn style, the departure of my last train was about 35 minutes delayed… It did do the job of taking me home though, so this is where my story ends!

More Interscandi!

The first and only full day of Interscandi continues to follow the usual schedule: breakfast, run, lunch on the way, circle, and dinner and a themed party. Considering we were based in the second largest city of Germany, we had a surprisingly green run!

After last night’s pub crawl, the hot dorm room, and the loud music from the venues on the Reeperbahn, not everyone made it in time for breakfast, but luckily I did!

After an U-Bahn and an S-Bahh to Hoheneichen, we were ready to run the trail. My choice was the long trail, good for 14,3 km of running, including some ‘checking’ (running in the wrong direction to find out where the trail actually continues).

So, a note about the party and dinner: the theme was ‘vikings in drag or flip flops’, although the formulation changed over time, and mermaids were squeezed in there somehow as well… I decided to just go for a viking in a viking dress.

Since I’m not much of a party goer, I snuck out early to put my battle axe safely away, change into my usual kilt, and go back to Craft Bier Bar Hamburg, probably the bar with the most interesting taplist at the moment!

Interscandi!

After the hashy intermezzo on Thursday, it was back to normality for a couple of hours, before the main event of this trip would really start: Interscandi. What supposedly started as a joint hash event for/by the Scandinavian hashes, now extends to anywhere the vikings have been, hence the choice for Hamburg this year…

Normality usually starts with breakfast and coffee, so after a breakfast buffet at the ibis budget hotel, I headed to Milch for that coveted coffee. Unfortunately they were inexplicably closed, so I walked on for my only cultural stop today: the Kramer-Witwen-Wohnung, the ‘shopkeeper’s widow’s home’, built in the 17th century—so widows could move out of their husbands’ shops, so other shopkeepers could move in—and in use for this purpose until the 19th century. Reading this explanation probably took longer than the visit, because it was tiny!

To be fair: I limited myself to one cultural stop to be able to squeeze in one last beer stop before the less predictable part of the weekend would start… On the way there was the Elbgold coffee roastery though, so I could have my espresso macchiato after all!

But just a little after lunch time I found myself already at the Beyond Beer shop, tasting their draught beers…

I still had some time left, and I decided to kill it at BrewDog St. Pauli. I actually already dropped by there on my first night in Hamburg, but I just missed last call then…

Interscandi is with accommodation included, so I had to change venues on the day it started. So my home for the next two nights would be the Pyjama Park Hostel, completely filled with other hashers… The checkin was a happy reunion with people I met at other hash events, and of course a a substantial delegation of BMPH3 members. Let the mayhem begin! Well, as it turned out, the mayhem was too much for the people behind the bar of the hostel, so I fled to The Baby Goat Barn, and had some pizza while I was there.

After that, it was already time to start the pub crawl, no running involved this time. To my delight they had set a “beer nerds” trail as well! It brought me back to The Baby Goat Barn, BrewDog, and Bar Oorlam, but I was so happy to be drinking craft beer on a Nash Hash pub crawl!