YES! The Southsiders have just posted their tickets for the Cascadia Cup awaydays online!
Click here to begin your journey to football paradise!
It doesn't matter if you're a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed newbie or a cynical old Swangard oldtimer, this is the time for all Vancouver supporters to warm up the credit cards and pre-plan the sick days!
(Hello boss? Cough! Cough! It's that awful monkeypox acting up again! Aggravated my di-a-beetus too!)
The away matches to Seattle are incredible fun, and it's the optimal situation for first-timers just easing themselves into the Vancouver supporters community. Don't know anybody yet? Bollocks. Hop on the bus with the Southsiders and you'll have matchday pals for the rest of the season. It's that simple. Just add beer and watch the awesomeness grow before your eyes.
Yes, that's right, I forgot to mention the beer. You see, loyal readers (all six of you), once we enter the land of the free and the home of the brave, beer undergoes an amazing chemical tranformation where
a) it's suddenly cheaper than Coca Cola; and
b) it's suddenly safe for adults over the age of 21 to consume on a private charter bus!
High five, 'Merica!
Every Southsiders bus trip makes a snack and bevvie stop at the Cost Cutters in Blaine, a mystical place where you can buy 18 cans of beer for $15. Check out the flyer! It's our special way of celebrating our release from the dastardly clutches of the Department of Homeland Rubber Gloving.
Border waits aside, the travel to Seattle isn't all that long - maybe two hours, three if traffic is buggered.
(Seriously, Sounders: WTF is up with the line-ups between Seattle and Olympia? What's going on there?)
The Emerald City is a beautiful city with lots to see and do before and after the match. Pike Place Market is like Granville Island on steroids (in a good way), and you can venture over to the Experience Music Project to drool over Jimi Hendrix guitars or a plate of insanely good garlic fries.
The Seattle stadium experience is an incredible sight to behold, too. All 40,000 of those rave green eyesores stand the entire 90 minutes - men, women, kids, young and old alike. I really hope to see that in Vancouver some day. The standing, that is, not the retinal-scorching brain damage.
Seattle is also where magic happens. I saw this IN PERSON:
Did you see me in that video? Probably not, but rest assured I was one of hundreds of Vancouverites losing bladder control admidst the explosion of blue and white flags.
Now don't get me wrong... Seattle's great and all... but if you want to really earn your stripes, you MUST do an overnighter in Portland. The journey down is long (five hours after crossing the border), but there is plenty to pass the time. Take your pick of on-board entertainment, for example: we have movies on overhead TV sets, rowdy games of Battleshots (ask @djwendo), hilarious banter (ask @cayleestewart), and there's usually one or two rounds of "How Did We Lose Those F---ing Australians Again?"
Then there's this:
You will be amazed at the sort of atmosphere Vancouver's supporters can generate with that wooden roof over our heads in Portland. It puts the noise levels of most matches at BC Place to shame, and I'm sincerely not exaggerating about that. Everybody who makes the trip goes because their heart is truly in it, and as you can tell from the video above, it DOES make a difference on the pitch. I also love to see the collaboration play out between the @Southsiders, @CurvaCollective and @RainCityBrigade all within a few sections of each other, side by side. Throw in the banter back and forth with the @TimbersArmy, and you've got yourself the greatest weekend a Vancouver soccer supporter could possibly hope for. Don't miss out!
Last year I organized a #CapsOnTour Portland post match dinner at a great Mexican restaurant and led a pub crawl down Burnside Avenue. Here's a link to the one and only #CapsOnTour party map of 2012!
As you can see I've got all the locations of the hotels, dormitories and a good selection of Portland pubbery to whet your whistle. Should we do it again? Mix it up a little? Let me know what you think, and perhaps I'll update the map for 2013.
Last but not least, we wouldn't be going anywhere this year if it wasn't for our tireless and incredibly humble Southsiders Director of Away Travel, Ms. Rebecca Contant (@shomgotoshi). Her task is one that is immensely complex, horribly time consuming, and only slightly more pleasant than attempting to herd feral cats into a Mr. Turtle pool. Please tweet her some gratitude for the insane amount of work she has been doing to ensure that folks like you and I get to enjoy ourselves. Thanks Rebecca!
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