50 + 10 points
Journey to the End of the Night - Budapest 2011 by fin
January 31st, 2012 5:58 PM
Some time after Journey to the End of the Year:Vienna I received an email. The originator of this email had participated in the aforementioned run and intended to bring the game to their city.
I was rather excited about these prospects, having participated in these games four-five times by then, but always in the role of a co-organizer. I wanted to run!
Some experience was shared, some encouraging words exchanged and suddenly, a few weeks later, my brother and I were on our way to Budapest.
At the start, we met the esteemed mr relet, who I - predictably - failed to recognize at first. Cue me blaming my bad memory of faces.
The introductory speech was held in a weird languages I did not understand.
A friendly interpreter told us few international visitors the gist of the rules.
Having the rules I've written so often read back to me felt weird. Calm before the storm.
Took the time to take some pictures when suddenly the crowd started to run.
Excitement.
I was now prey.
That's new.
I had quickly been separated from the few people I could communicate with without language barreer.
In a totally unfamiliar city.
Nevermind that, just run.
After some creative pathfinding - a theme we will revisit later - I finally arrived at the beautiful CP1.
Draw something. Can do.
Onward.
Had to wait for a tram. This took forever, but happened somewhere where no chaser would ever come.
Arrived somewhere close to CP2, went looking for it but … somehow … ended up here:
Middle of nowhere, Budapest. Should have taken the left road a kilometer earlier.
Long story short, I needlessly walked around a HUGE park and doing that discovered that the shoes i brought
were not suitable for Journey. Therefore, I decided to take off my blue band.
Now that was a humbling experience.
Not to be discouraged, I decided to visit the remaining checkpoints (those I could find, anyways) and
take on the role of documenter.
There are never enough photos of Journey.
And so I did.
I saw beautiful checkpoints, saw careless runners tagged without mercy. Hung out with chasers and checkpoint agents.
And had a lot of fun at the party.
I ended up spending less than 24 hours in Budapest, and it remains one of my favorite cities. I ought to visit again soon.
I was rather excited about these prospects, having participated in these games four-five times by then, but always in the role of a co-organizer. I wanted to run!
Some experience was shared, some encouraging words exchanged and suddenly, a few weeks later, my brother and I were on our way to Budapest.
At the start, we met the esteemed mr relet, who I - predictably - failed to recognize at first. Cue me blaming my bad memory of faces.
The introductory speech was held in a weird languages I did not understand.
A friendly interpreter told us few international visitors the gist of the rules.
Having the rules I've written so often read back to me felt weird. Calm before the storm.
Took the time to take some pictures when suddenly the crowd started to run.
Excitement.
I was now prey.
That's new.
I had quickly been separated from the few people I could communicate with without language barreer.
In a totally unfamiliar city.
Nevermind that, just run.
After some creative pathfinding - a theme we will revisit later - I finally arrived at the beautiful CP1.
Draw something. Can do.
Onward.
Had to wait for a tram. This took forever, but happened somewhere where no chaser would ever come.
Arrived somewhere close to CP2, went looking for it but … somehow … ended up here:
Middle of nowhere, Budapest. Should have taken the left road a kilometer earlier.
Long story short, I needlessly walked around a HUGE park and doing that discovered that the shoes i brought
were not suitable for Journey. Therefore, I decided to take off my blue band.
Now that was a humbling experience.
Not to be discouraged, I decided to visit the remaining checkpoints (those I could find, anyways) and
take on the role of documenter.
There are never enough photos of Journey.
And so I did.
I saw beautiful checkpoints, saw careless runners tagged without mercy. Hung out with chasers and checkpoint agents.
And had a lot of fun at the party.
I ended up spending less than 24 hours in Budapest, and it remains one of my favorite cities. I ought to visit again soon.
