Ice hockey for beginners

It's the play-off season in the Finnish ice hockey league. I have no understanding or passion towards ice hockey, but this is what I've learnt: just pick a favorite team and stand by the team in good times and in bad - that's the best way to mingle and bond with the sports people of Finland. But please be warned, ice hockey may just be the topic that reveals the full scale of feelings within always-so-calm-and-neutral Finns. The feelings can be anything between joy and rage. For example, to my experience people get very happy, they even start to laugh, whenever I'm praising SaiPa as the best team in the league.

I hope the list below helps you to get familiar with who's who in the Finnish ice hockey league. And once you're familiar with the teams, you're ready for full scale hockey debate.

• HIFK - The traditional team of Helsinki. People who have lived in Helsinki for generations are fans of HIFK. They have the image of pure, genuine, uncorrupted, rough and no-bullshitting team who raises their own juniors to stars.
• Jokerit - The new, go-getter team of Helsinki. HIFK fans think that the name Jokerit originates from joke. Money talks, so they purchase their players from other teams.
• Espoo Blues - A team name without a history. Some say it reflects Espoo as a city without a history. I preferred the old name of the team: Kiekko-Espoo, Puck-Espoo.

• SaiPa - One of the wonders of the East, Lappeenranta. The best team in the league, as long as you don't get stuck with the details, such as the games they've won, or the goals they've scored or kept.
• KalPa - The best team in the league, even when counting the goals and points. My symphaties are on Kalpa's side, after all, they are a small town team from Kuopio.
• Tappara and Ilves - The two Tampere teams which you can't differentiate from each other. If you're poetic, you can always start a conversation with "kannatetaan Tapparaa ja syödään mustaa makkaraa" - let's stand for Tappara and try some black sausage.
• Kärpät - A skillful team from Oulu. The fans are pure hooligans.

To be honest, the only form of ice hockey I really enjoy is the hockey league salmiakki candies. But if I'm in a position to choose whichever one of the orange candies, I naturally try to pick one with SaiPa logo.

Weird and wonderful Tampere

Yesterday I visited Tampere. Business, not pleasure - but it was fun anyway. I bumped into couple of funny things and learnt something about the local public transportation culture:

• You're not supposed to stop the bus by waving your hand, as you do in Helsinki and Espoo. I felt myself as a hillbilly while being the only one waving at the bus stop.

• I saw at least ten, maybe fifteen people wearing Reino slippers. In a public. Outdoors. On a freezing day of -15C. What the...?
• People of Tampere were talking about midgets. I don't know why and I didn't dare to ask, because I'm allergic to LARPing - but they were talking about midgets. On a positive note, they were honest and straight forward and didn't talk about "vertically challenged" or "smaller fellows". 

Tampere is a weird town with industrial edge. People of Tampere don't talk posh, they are straight forward and humorous. That's why I've always liked Tampere.

The urban history

There are 108 cities or towns in Finland. Most of the cities are nice - in summer. According to the city marketing department, their city is the most unique place with fascinating history, clean nature, and generally, it's the ideal place to live your life and practice your business.

In reality there are three cities in Finland. Each of them have intriguing history. Right.

1) Turku
Former capital. Has always been there, excluding the times it was burnt down. Finnish language was invented in Turku, which is scary because Turku dialect sounds as if lamb was baaing in Finnish.

2) Helsinki
Current capital. Was established by a king of a neighbor country, and he had to force people to move into Helsinki.

3) Other 106 places with the legal status of town
The foundation of the town was established in the end of the last ice age, when the melting ice and snow run into rivers. 11 500 years later someone decided to build a tissue paper factory by the river and set up two concrete block houses. 45 years later someone decided to quit the paper factory and merge the town with the neighbor town.

So there are 108 cities in Finland - in summer. And nearly each of the 108 cities host some sort of a festival during the summer time. But only three of the cities are not sleeping on winter: Helsinki, Turku and Tampere. Tampere is the only town from the third category that has managed to turn into something like city.