Finding Hockey in Regensburg

Real quick, I have to say that these posts are not up to date.  I had a period of craziness and never caught up on my postings.  Hopefully by the end of tonight, I will be up to the current time.

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In February, at the thought of receiving an internship with OSRAM, I immediately searched for ice hockey.  It turns out that ice hockey in Germany is a big deal, and most say that it is only second in popularity to the mighty sport of soccer (this will never change--TRUST ME).  Then I found the websites for the arena, the Donau (Danube) Arena, and the team, the Regensburg Eisbaren (Ice Bears) in my potential summer home.

Among many missions when I first arrived at Regensburg, I wanted to find a gym to train at and the ice hockey rink.  It only took about two days before I had made the 7 mile roundtrip run from my apartment to the Donau Arena (next to my current gym, McFit) and met some of the local hockey crowd.  The rink is really phenomenal (big, well-built, massive jumbotron, etc.)  I found out that there are actually five professional hockey leagues in Germany.  The Regensburg Ice Bears have been playing in the second league, but last season they had bankruptcy problems, and must now work their way up from the fifth league (GOON LEAUGE).  Because of this, there is no ice during the summer time until August 18th, and I leave on August 16th.  However, there is a second rink within the same building where the pros and hundreds of locals play recreational inline hockey.  Since my arrival day, I have had the chance to play a few hours of inline hockey with club teams and teenagers.

Lately, I go to the rink because there is a equipment shop where I can check out the newest gear and talk with a nice Czech named Peter.  Peter loves hockey as much as I do, and we spend a lot of time talking about professional players and cool equipment he receive.  One day I was there having my new roller blades heated in the skate oven and molded to my feet, when a guy came in with his young son.  He spoke German with Peter, but then a mix of English and German with his son.  I decided to ask him if he was American, because he looked like a hockey player, and might be someone interesting to meet.  He told me that he, like Peter, is also a natural-born Czech, but he has a house in Florida and played in both the IHL and AHL (Rochester, NY) during his hockey career.  He is living in Regensburg with his son for a couple years so that he can pick up the German language, and then they will return to the US.  I usually see him and his son of Friday afternoons when I go to the rink to practice stickhandling and hang out.

Finding hockey here has been a nice release, even though I don't get to play too much.  It has made me realize that I can take myself to completely different parts of the world, and still find ways to fulfill my greatest interests.  Perhaps I will have something more with German hockey in my later life.