Now that we are past the half way point of the Division I/A Icehockey World Championships in Budapest, Hungary the excitement is slowly brewing for the final two days in which Hungary, Kazakhstan, and Italy are fighting for the two promotion spots where as Korea, Japan and Great Britain are trying to fight off relegation. If you are still craving more hockey then you have to go check out the fan village that has been set up in front of the Lázsló Papp Arena or the hockey museum that can also be found on sight.
The fan village is place to have fun, meet up with friends before the game and maybe grab a couple of beers. There is also a covered area were you can sit incase of rain as well as sign a giant Hungarian flag and to wish some good luck for the team. The fan village is also a good place to meet the fans of the other nations, to exchange opinions and some friendly banter. There is also a stage where someone is emceeing and also interviewing former players and other well known people of the Hungarian hockey world.
If you are coming down with your significant other or maybe even some children, there are other activities to do in the village besides drinking beer. You can play bubble hockey and air hockey against your rivals and for the kids they can go around from station to station to collect stamps and then trade that in for a prize. If you have never played hockey but you always wanted to try then you have a chance on a synthetic ice rink with real skates. It is about as close as you can get playing on an out door rink in the middle of April as you can get.
If you would like to stay out of the sun or stay away from the boisterous and exuberant fans then you can take a look at the Hungarian Ice Hockey museum that is also on sight. When you walk in you have a chance to shoot a puck on net to try to win a prize or pose for a picture in a cut out of a Hungarian player. Up on the second floor is the real history, jerseys of club teams and national teams past and present, there is even a mock setup of part of a locker-room. The finalists for the cartoon competition are all hanging on the wall for everyone to see along with old black and white team photos. There is a separate little corner for the Hungarian Mr. Hockey, György Pásztor as well as the EBEL junior trophy. Selected team photos from national teams of the past 30 years can be seen along with tickets, player passes and other memorabilia. On a television they have the final game of the 2009 World championships, overtime lose to the Italians, on loop. If you are more of a goalie or a fan of the masked players then you will like the little exhibition that they have on goalie masks including a number of Levente Szuper’s, the national team keeper. We can not forget about the club teams, there are a number of jerseys team pictures of the ones that won the Hungarian league and of course you can not leave out the picture of Jason Strudwick and Rob Niedermayer holding up their Ferencváros jerseys after they had signed with the Hungarian club. The best part of this museum is that it is free entrance, if you have some free time, or time to kill between two matches then swing by for some ice hockey fun in the sun or just learn about some hockey history.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky