Just days away now!

We're getting more and more excited about our sabbatical! We leave Seattle on Tuesday and we're furiously packing and preparing for our big adventure. Two months abroad!! This is our first major trip since our wedding last September. And now, two months in Europe & Russia. What a journey! Our plan:

Sweden

• Fly to Sweden, and pick up a new Volvo in Gothenburg. We're doing the European delivery thing, and the sales person kept telling us "you'll feel like the King and Queen of Sweden!" He was such a sleazeball by the third time he said that I wanted to throttle him, but the deal with Volvo is simply unbeatable. We'll save $7k by picking our new car out in Europe and having it delivered to the US later.
• In Gothenburg we'll meet up with Rune Svensson, a friend of a friend who has generously offered to show us around town. We spoke with him on the phone, and he was so incredibly friendly and welcoming.
• From Gothenburg we take a three day road trip across central Sweden. Should be fun taking the V50 out for a spin! We're not sure where to stay or what to see yet (ideas welcome.) And then onto Stockholm, where we'll spend a few days exploring and stuffing ourselves with herring.

Russia

• St. Petersburg! We start our trip in Russia's old capital on the Baltic Sea. This is my first trip to Russia and I'm really excited to see it! It will be the second commie country I visit in under 6 months; I'm going for a record! The stamps look cool in my passport anyway. ;) St. Petersburg should be awesome. Walter tells me it's really fun. I'm psyched for the Peterhof and learning more about Russian history and culture.
• Onto Moscow! We're taking an overnight train from St. Petersburg. Olya keeps trying to scare me about Moscow. From the sound of it I'll be pickpocketted while still in the train station. Then on the way to the airport, the cabbie will swindle me and take me for a ride. I'll be beaten and mugged in the hotel lobby. And of course I should not really set foot in the beautiful metro stations, I'm not man enough to survive that.
• From Moscow we take the trans-Siberian to Olya's hometown of Kemerovo, in central Siberia. We're both super psyched about the long train ride! The trains are really beautiful and we're traveling first class, so not really roughing it. It's 3 nights and 2 days, and they have a dining cart and showers and everything. I hope to take some great pictures along the way, though the train hardly ever stops...
• In Kemerovo we're meeting up with Olya's brother Oleg, who was so nice to us at our wedding. I'm psyched to see where Olya comes from, and get to know Oleg a bit better.

England

• After Russia we fly back to London, where we'll stay with my sister and her family. We'll probably need a break from the travel and the trains and all the exploring. So we'll take it easy and just hang out with friends. Hopefully we can hook up with Gautam & Radhika and have a good time. Our main goal there will be to eat amazing Indian food!

France

• Finally we get to Paris, our main destination! We're staying in Naim's parents' place, which is small but centrally located. It's right by l'Eglise de la Madeleine and la Place de l'Opera. We have a whole month in Paris to just enjoy life and decompress. Croissants shall be eaten and museums explored.
• From Paris we're going to take a 3 day weekend in Normandy with my old friend Nadine, and her boyfriend Pierre. I'm so excited to get in touch with her again, I haven't seen her since she lived in Seattle 6 or 7 years ago! And I hope we get to see the WWII beaches and memorials. Dad tells me they're incredibly moving.
• One of our main goals while in France is to hire a pretty model to pose with some of Olya's knitwear designs. She has some great stuff queued up for her new business, Knitizen.com. It's my first time trying to photograph a model though, so I'm unsure how it works. I'm reading up about it, and I bought a light reflector shield and a good flash. But I still worry I'll feel mildly ridiculous asking our girl to "work it" in French. :)

Well, that's the plan so far. It's such an amazing trip it's hard to believe it's happening. We both feel really really lucky to have this opportunity. It's going to be hard to be away from friends and work for so long!

- Piero