Sports?!

Last night I joined some friends on a short trip up to Luleå for a hockey game! I was so excited to go to a live sports game. I’ve been so bummed to miss football season at home, and I knew that this would give me a good high energy sports fix!

We had to catch the bus at 5:15pm. It was a special shuttle only for those going to the game. Unlike the States, there are no college sports here. So, we were going to see Luleå’s team play. Some of the players were young and in school, while some were older and ‘professional’.

grabbing a öl before the game

The arena itself was smaller than Blue Cross Arena (in Columbus. I went to a Blue Jackets’ game once, so it’s all I have to compare to!). I think there were about 5,500 people at this game. We were in the ‘standing room only’ section, where people were leading cheers and rowdier than the rest of the fans. This was the only spirited area, everyone else was wearing black and just sat there!

it says "Subway" on their butts! :)

We had a great time, even though we had no connection to either team. Actually, at the very beginning of the game, David and I were cheering for the wrong team and it took us awhile to figure it out. Whoops!

Conny, Kajsa, Johan, Sarah

David, Martina, Me

with Sarah!

The funniest part of the experience was that a lot of the cheers were to American cheers or tunes. One of them was to “It’s off to work we go” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Seriously. Most of the time I just made up my own words, and shouted “Luleå” every once in awhile!

Luleå flag?

The bus ride home was a lot of fun. There was a very drunk fan that kept talking to David and was making the whole bus laugh. At some point he made me take off my hat to give it to David. He was convinced that I stole it…or something. Everything was in Swedish…and when you just go with it, it’s a lot of fun to have no idea what’s going on! I also tried to teach everyone some OH-IO cheers, but they didn't catch on :(

Hat switch to make the drunk guy happy!

When we got back to Piteå, some of us hadn’t eaten dinner. So, we went to Big Boy. Yes. There is a fast food place in town was called Big Boy. Not like the restaurant in Ohio, but it still made me laugh. Not to mention I haven’t eaten fries or a burger in such a long time! It was yummy!!

Good thing we had a long walk home to work it off :)