HOKEJ!!!

Our city has been taken over by a giant.  That giant is called HOCKEY (or hockej here).  It's huge!!!  And I'm convinced the whole city is in to it.

The cool thing is the World Hockey Championships are taking place right here in Bratislava across from our apartment building (well, practically).  The big arena and "Fan Village" are down the street and that's where the daily hockey games take place until May 15th (and in another town called Kosice).  We can see and hear a lot of the celebration going on from our balcony.

It's been pretty exciting to experience.  So much has changed, it seems, in preparation for hosting this large event.  Bus stops have been renamed and new stops have even been created.  The whole city is super clean. People are constantly bustling around our neck of the woods.  It's loud, unifying and all together pretty awesome to see.

The other night we headed down to Fan Village to see things in action firsthand (you can watch the games on tv...but in Fan Village they throw it up on a big screen for multiple person viewing pleasure).  And by multiple people, I mean A TON of people.

We were located right next to a fellow who thought it would be awesome to clang a cymbal every time something exciting took place (which in his mind was literally every few seconds...haha).  So other than busted ear drums, we came back happy to have experienced a big part of Slovak culture!

Maybe these will give you some idea of the madness...

We unsuccessfully tried to look mean...

And their heads weren't large enough ;)

Just one part of the field!

This is probably the best view for giving you a little taste of Slovak excitement for hockey.

Now if I can only work on understanding the rules better...