OK, well... By popular demand, here's some more info about The Hash House Harriers.
http://www.harrier.nl. Warning, It'll be quite a long post!
I had some loose idea of what to expect before I got there, as a friend of mine in Paris happens to be the Grand mistress for one of the hashes that runs in there, and I've tagged along on a couple of occasions when I was visiting her. I'm pretty sure therefore that my debut with the Amsterdam hash was a fairly typical outing so I'll describe what happened.
At the appointed hour of 3pm, I arrived at the meeting point, outside Niewmarkt metro station. I was greeted by the letters AH3 ON OUT and an arrow pointing to the left of me (Amsterdam Hash House Harriers - starting point. Trail starts this way) scrawled in yellow chalk on the pavement, so I stood there. It wasn't long before a chap I recognised from the website appeared, towing a LARGE suitcase - Postman Prat (his hash handle) with the haberdashery. Hashers are very fond of commemorative t-shirts - the more brightly coloured and funny the better - and each hash club has their own collection of same for sale. Another chap appeared without a suitcase - he was another newbie like me. We stood around, chatting about nothing much in particular and everything in between "Where are you from?" "How long have you been doing this?" "Do you know anything about today's trail?" and so on. I introduced myself as "Just Carole" to tell them that I've not been around long enough to have a hash handle. These are awarded for some really daft or funny thing that you once did, usually whilst out on a hash. You don't get to choose them yourself, and they usually veer between mildly funny-sounding to downright rude! It wasn't long before another 10 or so people turned up.
So for today, we were the pack of harriers. But where was the Hare?
The Hare sets up a trail in advance (usually marked with blobs of flour or chalk on the floor, with the odd chalk arrow drawn as well). The hare would usually be there to explain the markings and give some hints, but our hare appeared to be stuck in a bar somewhere... Oh well. In places, the trail stops and you have to search for where it goes next. This is all marked using a series of Hash markings that are explained at the start of the run. The Harriers follow this trail - some walk, some run, most do a combination of both. The check marks (find the trail from here) serve to slow up the front runners (Front Running Bastards, FRBs) and allow the back markers to catch up. The idea is that the whole lot of harriers should arrive at pretty much the same time at the destination. When one of the FRBs spots a hash mark to confirm that they're still on the trail, they will shout out "On On!" to guide those who follow. There's usually a beer stop about 2/3 of the way round at a friendly pub. The whole 'run' is designed to take about an hour and a half to navigate. The chief purpose of the run is to work up a thirst and there are 'punishments' metered out to people who are seen to be taking it altogether too seriously! It's supposed to be FUN, afterall.
At the destination, there is beer and snacks (good job this was on a Sunday afternoon *grin*) and a circle is formed. This is the 'On In'. People are required to down small portions of beer in 'punishment' for various misdemenours, again, these are generally pretty daft but funny. Each time a person has to do a 'down down' (drink down the beer) there's a song that goes with it.
After that's completed, there's usually an 'On After' - either an agreed pub meet, or a party, or a meal somewhere. This time it was Excremental Earnings birthday, so we all went to her flat for dinner.
So there you are. Hope that satisfies your curiousity. There are 'Kennels' of Hash House Harriers all over the globe. Understanding each other is no problem - English is the language for just about everyone, most hashers are random expats from all over the world, athough there are usually quite a few 'natives' too. Most of them have websites with information about when and where they meet, and / or contact details to find out that information. For example, the website for the VIENNA hash is at
http://www.geocities.com/viennahash/ so if you fancied investigating GJ, you can find details there. It looks like there's a run there on Sunday afternoon this week, in fact. When they go on holiday, hashers quite often look up the local kennel to where they're going and visit them for a run or two. Hashers will offer visitors assistance with somewhere to stay, tourist guide services and a ready-made network of social contacts.
In short, Hashing is a combination of 1 part treasure hunt, 2 parts exercise, 2 parts beer and a hefty squeeze of random sociability. You don't have to be particularly fit or a quick runner - you don't even have to run at all most of the time! If you want to though, there's nothing stopping you. A well designed trail will cater to everone's needs and still be a lot of fun for all.
Hope that gives you enough of an idea and that I haven't bored the pants off you! I for one will be going back again for another shot at it this coming weekend.
On On!
C.