Arrival in Stockholm.

Kindof.
Johnny Wong was lost in battle. Somehow Air Canada screwed up his flights. Somehow. Air Canada. Screwed up. Imagine that!? Anyway he's probably just getting on a flight right now.
The flight consisted of a child screaming. so no sleep... still.
The cabby drove about 130 the entire way in... including while he was tailgating Volvos.
We've checked into the Royal Viking Radisson Hotel in downtown Stockholm. We've produced an elaborate scheme to get 5 people checked into a 3-person room. It's a Junior suite... it's pretty sweet. There's a bit TV and it looks like everything is from Ikea... well where else would it be from? Although it took two university students about 20 minutes to figure out how to work the lights.
Anyway, we're going to shower and guess what... NOT SLEEP! haha. We're going to go procure a Swedish Christmas dinner, check out the town and then have a drink up in the Skybar which is in the Penthouse of this hotel.
All I know is that a wake-up call will probably be in order because our train is at 9am tomorrow.

Sleepless in Heathrow.

Since leaving Halifax, I have peed six times. I think that’s pretty good. I drank water and tomato juice on the plane and I just finished off two pints of Guinness at a cozy little pub in Heathrow appropriately called “O’Neill’s.” O is Irish for fun.
When we arrived in London, we met up with Michael in the long line to get to Terminal 3. He’s a pretty good guy thus far. During our early engagements, he spoke kindly of his friend Johnny Wong. Initially, we suspected that Johnny Wong was a Chinese Mafioso but so far, he seems legit. Plus, he and Michael just went in together on two litres of Johnny Walker Black Label. So they’re okay in my book.
To recap, memories to date include urine, the plethora of minorities working at Heathrow (remarkably, any airport security-related skirmish that we’ve witnessed so far has occurred between individuals of the same race. We’ll all sleep well tonight knowing that it’s not just white people that use racial profiling anymore – sometimes, it can be your brother. Or mom. Think about that.) and Guinness.
We’re all very tired. Jenn is perhaps the most tired but her tiredness is followed closely by that of Johnny. Dan, Michael and myself appear to have gotten over the tired hump so we should be game for some Christmas Day fun in Stockholm.
Canada takes to the ice tomorrow against host Sweden. That should be pretty good. If you’re watching for us on TV, we’ll be the ones that aren’t blonde.
Anyway, it’s 12:55 and those bastard Scandinavians still haven’t told us what gate our 1:20 flight is leaving from. So I think we’re going to go figure that out.
See you in Sweden.

Love,
The Apple Dumpling Gang

holy frozen-fog hell.

So for all of you guys that have been living under a rock for the past 11 months and not paying attention to our very important lives... We leave on a jetplane at 11pm on Christmas Eve for Sweden to see the World Junior Hockey Tournament. And it will be exciting.

Right now Heathrow airport in London (which is where we connect with our flight to Stockholm) is full of angry passengers stranded by bad weather. But it looks like even if there is still "ice fog" (bunch of wussies -- welcome to Halifax, haha) we'll still be on our way because our flights are "long haul" and they take precidence.

Anyway, if you forget to check us out gracing the airwaves on TSN... (which will happen if we can help it.) then at least follow our days in Sweden from here! (of course, you should be doing both!)

Jenn Casey, Halifax, NS

Michael Koval, London, ON

Garreth MacDonald, Port Hood, NS

Dan McDonald, Fall River, NS

Johnny Wong, Calgary, AB (in the flames sweater.... thank god :P)