Dutch fans painting the town orange
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/02/2010 (6067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A few days into my stay in Vancouver and it’s clear that the hardest-partying and most well-represented country not named Canada is the Netherlands. The Dutch are here in numbers, and they’re awesome. Everywhere you go there is a sea of orange. They’re much like Rider fans at a Grey Cup: they’re all dressed up, everyone wears something wacky on their head, and they’re hard to understand. The Dutch however, are better looking.
“ö I got to watch Cindy Klassen, Clara Hughes and Kristina Groves skate. Cindy and Clara got a massive pop from the crowd, which was pretty moving. As awesome as that was, sitting in the section beside me was Wayne Gretzky and daughter Paulina along with Donald Sutherland. No VIP seats, no security, just watching some great competition like the rest of us.
“ö Where this trend started I have no idea, but apparently the thing to do at these games is walk around Robson Square in a large group with an ’80s ghetto blaster — or as it is more politically correctly known, a boombox — blasting cassettes of whatever is popular in your home country. It seems to be largely a Croation or Belarussian thing, but it’s super fun. Watching groups of people walk-dancing around Vanouver to Eastern European techno-pop is a good time. They’re proving to be very popular.
“ö I spent a morning at Centre Place Manitoba — which is fantastic and drawing huge crowds at their location in Live City Downtown — and got to hang out with Corrine Hunt for an hour. Corrine designed the Olympic medals and is the most wonderful woman you’ll ever meet. Check out www.corrinehunt.ca . She’s good.
“ö I’m not a complainer, but this is worth questioning. I bought my ticket to watch Cindy and Clara skate from the official Vancouver 2010 website. The only one I could get was $585.Now, this is way too much for a ticket, but I really wanted to spend Valentine’s Day watching two women I have massive respect for live and in person. When I got to the Richmond Oval, I picked up my ticket from Will Call and looked at it. It had a face value of $185.00. I asked why I had paid so much for a ticket from the official website and was told “sometimes that happens.” Oh, well that clears that up nicely. I haven’t been ripped off that badly since I paid $50 for one of those $10 tickets from Perth’s outside the Winnipeg Arena to watch the Jets play Detroit. At least then I knew I was being ripped off by a man in a parka, not an official website. Oh well. I’m over it. Both cases.
Ace Burpee is morning man
at Hot 103 FM