For one of our meetings, we decided to attend the ice hockey match Ilves vs. EC Red Bull Salzburg at Hakametsä Arena. Since getting to know the unofficial Finnish national sport had been on all of our bucket lists anyway, this opportunity was a perfect fit.
On the way to the arena, we compared the importance of ice hockey (lední hokej) in our home countries, Germany and the Czech Republic. Lenka told us that the sport (which we realized has the same word in German, English and Czech) has an extremely high status in the Czech Republic and that the country is very successful (úspěšně) at the international level. In Germany, ice hockey has been growing in popularity, but it does not have the same importance among the general population as football (fotbal), for example.
Some of the most well-known Czech players are Jaromír Jágr, Dominik Hašek and David Pastrňák, while famous German players include Leon Draisaitl, Moritz Seider and Dominik Kahun.
We followed the game with great excitement, and in the end it finished 2–1 for Ilves – yay!
After the match, we stayed in front of the arena for a while and talked about the sports we enjoy doing ourselves. Lenka and Christoph like cycling (jízda na kole), while I enjoy dancing (tančit). We also decided to go together to Uni Sports the next day and attend the Pump class.
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