The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
calvertjournal.com
The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#2I get the impression that this is a system wherein honest mistakes and failure to adhere to strict rules are punished, while outright cheating is allowed simply because it's difficult or impossible to catch. Meanwhile, the strict rules exist in part in order to try to make cheating harder, but don't actually seem to make it harder to cheat, they just make it harder to complete the trail in an honest fashion.
As such, this seems like a cautionary tale for a wide variety of human-designed systems, especially centrally-administered systems such as in governments and corporations.
That said, I love the idea of a trail like this, and I love the idea of collecting stamps along the way.
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#3I get the impression that this is a system wherein honest mistakes and failure to adhere to strict rules are punished, while outright cheating is allowed simply because it's difficult or impossible to catch. Meanwhile, the strict rules exist in part in order to try to make cheating harder, but don't actually seem to make it harder to cheat, they just make it harder to complete the trail in an honest fashion. As such,…
And like the article also mentions, the stamps are very much like the concept of "gamification" in software where people enjoy getting badges of achievements even if they serve no real purpose in themselves.
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#4And here I thought the goal of hiking a long trail was pride of achievement when you get when you finish it. Silly me.
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#5I get the impression that this is a system wherein honest mistakes and failure to adhere to strict rules are punished, while outright cheating is allowed simply because it's difficult or impossible to catch. Meanwhile, the strict rules exist in part in order to try to make cheating harder, but don't actually seem to make it harder to cheat, they just make it harder to complete the trail in an honest fashion. As such,…
"Stamp rallies" in Japan are so common that they invented their own pseudo-English word for them. The OG is the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage, which requires you to collect stamps from 88 different temples, preferably by walking 1200 km:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage
Although there's no prize or verifying authority for completion.
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#6I hiked 30 miles over 3 days once and it was an epic adventure, leaving me exhausted. It's hard for me to even imagine what a 700 mile trip like this on foot is like! And the PCT is almost four times longer....
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#7I get the impression that this is a system wherein honest mistakes and failure to adhere to strict rules are punished, while outright cheating is allowed simply because it's difficult or impossible to catch. Meanwhile, the strict rules exist in part in order to try to make cheating harder, but don't actually seem to make it harder to cheat, they just make it harder to complete the trail in an honest fashion. As such,…
I got into audax/randonneuring a couple of years back. It's almost just going for long bike rides, but with enough structure to make it interesting and keep pushing yourself. I navigate by GPS (and, frankly, couldn't handle using a paper routesheet like the real traditionalists do), but I love the physicality of having your brevet card and getting it stamped at the control points, and getting it back as a souvenir later with another stamp on (once it's been sent to Paris for official recordkeeping).
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#8And here I thought the goal of hiking a long trail was pride of achievement when you get when you finish it. Silly me.
A little bit of structure and tradition enhances the experience. You feel more part of a shared culture, and it gives you a reason to stretch a little further than you would otherwise.
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#9And here I thought the goal of hiking a long trail was pride of achievement when you get when you finish it. Silly me.
Have you hiked a long trail before?
I did the Camino de Santiago, starting at Vezelay, and I am not a sentimental person, but I very much cherish my stamp book. It elicits very different memories from me compared to when I look back at pictures I took, or read my diary from that time.
Re: The bureaucracy of hiking Hungary's Blue Trail
#10I get the impression that this is a system wherein honest mistakes and failure to adhere to strict rules are punished, while outright cheating is allowed simply because it's difficult or impossible to catch. Meanwhile, the strict rules exist in part in order to try to make cheating harder, but don't actually seem to make it harder to cheat, they just make it harder to complete the trail in an honest fashion. As such,…
"Stamp rallies" in Japan are so common that they invented their own pseudo-English word for them. The OG is the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage, which requires you to collect stamps from 88 different temples, preferably by walking 1200 km: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage Although there's no prize or verifying authority for completion.
> Although there's no prize or verifying authority for completion
There’s only one way to restore your honor if you cheat on a stamp rally!