London Ninja

For the first time in my life, I will not be in the US for the holidays. Even when I lived in North Carolina, my buddy ODJ and I made it a point to drive back in time for the holidays with the family. Yes, folks. 1 car, 8 states, 6 days. It was particularly interesting when you throw in these ingredients:
1. Steak every night (lasted 2 nights)
2. No shaving all week (wasn’t that bad)
3. Excessive flatulence
4. Excessive belching
5. An endlessly looping cassette tape of Smashing Pumpkins
6. Record snow storm levels
7. Altitude sickness while snowboarding in Colorado

So with that said, this year I will not be eating fried rice with the grandmum and folks. Doesn’t make sense when you’re in Europe and can experience things like Swedish meatballs. This year we will be embarking on the coldest holiday season of my life. Here’s where we will be going along with our 4 NYC friends: Workmonkey, Jilly_Billy, Kym and Chaz. I’ll show these Americans how we Brits take down bitters.

The Trip
12/24 = Stockholm, Sweden
12/25 = Tallinn, Estonia
12/27 = St Petersburg, Russia
12/31 = Helsinki, Finland
1/1 = Back to the Queen

Why these cities?
Because nobody has been to these places. I actually didn’t pick these cities, but have always wanted to go to St Petersburg…and let me be clear that this will be the last time I go to Russia on a tourist visa. I forget how much of a pain it is to get a visa. Russia makes it twice as hard.

Is it going to be cold?
No. It’s going to be bloody cold. And by cold I do mean hypothermic. I have a few items that may battle some of the cold, but we will see. I may lose feeling in parts of my body…namely in the scrotum area. C’est La vie.