What on earth is ice hockey?

Sure, I know what ice hockey is, afterall our home team in Hamburg is quite successful. But as someone who basically grew up on and around a soccer pitch, I never really cared about this weird sport that every Finn seems to love so much. So before I came here I had never seen an actual ice hockey game, not even on TV. Even after coming here it took me half a year to actually go and see one. At this point – shout out to my host dad for bringing me along to all the ice hockey or basketball games! Now, my first ever ice hockey game was amazing. Might be the fact that we won 7 – 2, or maybe it was just the excitement of being there the first time. It was great! I was quite surprised at how small the arena was with only about 3 000 people watching. Much less than the usual 50 000 fans I am used to from going to football games in Hamburg. But still they managed to create a real stadium atmosphere. Something I really missed.
When we saw the game last Saturday, my friends actually laughed at me for getting so invested in the game, sitting on the edge of my seat. Surprisingly, I wasn’t the only newbie when it comes to ice hockey. For two of my friends it was their first time at a game. Even though we lost 0-3 it was a good game. Not as great as football though… 🙂