The venue for all this hokej was the recently built Sazka Arena in Vysočany, naturally the target for the daily pilgrimage. I had an additional reason for a visit. After the revolution but before the normalization I used to live there. In fact it was the first flat I had of my own, a penthouse pad with a great view over the humongous ČKD industrial complexes just across the street. I even tried to buy it with my pocket money; Vysočany was unpopular and no-cost real estate, primarily for being the most polluted area in Prague, which truly was saying something at that time.

But all things heavy industrial must pass, and so would the low grade coal that gave winter its distinct colour and aroma. The Metro was coming through and would shorten a half hour tram ride to the center down to ten minutes. My lack of Czechness and drive to circumnavigate the city bureaucracy left me homeless, but the location made great sense for a sports arena. The half-fallow land is still cheap and the Metro can push people through like no other transport system could, and does on a daily basis.

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The Czech Republic might join the Union tomorrow, but that is completely overshadowed by The Event, the 2004 Ice Hockey World Championship. I have never yet attended a hokej match, not that I could possibly afford a ticket for this event, and am quite uneducated on the particulars of this sport. I am fascinated by the hokej utensils, like the blood scoop they use to scrape the blood off the ice.

Once upon a time the Prague beer hall U Fleků, with its own brand of dark beer, was a recommended visit. Now it is a rather garish theatre set for the Czech impression of the German impression of what a Czech beer hall is all about. So with its big projection screen it was the ideal venue for the match between the historical enemies Sweden and Russia. As the gathered Swiss eagerly demonstrated, Switzerland was not a neutral country in this conflict at all. My table, a Swede and two Russians, was a quiet eddy in the maelstrom of schweinhund chanting, beer guzzling, loudly cheerful hokej fans. The Czech waiters quietly watched in the background. This country may have been invaded by the Swedes in the 17th century and by the Russians in the 20th, but this is hokej, what matters is not the points scored in the past, but where the threats are to the Czech hegemony as the finals approach.

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