As a part of our big plan to retire early abroad, we’ve sold our house a few days.  As I wrote in the earliest posts, we loved our house so much! I could not imagine how I would go through the process of selling the furniture, giving up my china and silverware, all “precious” items that we accumulated during all these years… In reality, it was simple and less emotional than I even could imagine.

We put in storage three medium boxes with the stuff from our parents and grandparents and three boxes with the household stuff (a “starter kit”), just in case if we need to come back.  And one small box with the paper copies of our tax returns for the past seven years, again, just in case…

The biggest challenge was to pack our almost half of century life into two medium luggage suites (one for me and one for my husband).  That was emotional!  I hope that later I will learn how to travel with the carry-on luggage only.  Today, I still have more than I really need.

Our son recommended that we settled in New York for a few weeks before the final take off, and what a wise idea it was!  Our friends are spending three weeks in Europe, and we are subletting their apartment in the city for the next two weeks. I always wanted to live in New York, and here my dream became a reality.  What a blessing!

We’ve sold almost all our possessions but one car.  The day before handing the car over to the potential buyer, my husband decided to change the oil.  Next day, after the service, the car’s transmission broke, and we had to tow it to replace the transmission. Tomorrow, the car will be fixed and sold, and we’ll be free!!!

While trying to tie all loose ends, we enjoy city’s life:  eating out, sampling blueberry pancakes from the famous bread house,

enjoying the art of the morning cappuccino,

meeting old friends for lunch and introducing them to our latest discovery – il laboratorio del gelato, that has over 200 flavors of gelato and sorbet.

My favorites so far are chocolate hazelnut, Thai chili chocolate, basil, tarragon pink pepper, and lemon rosemary. The goal is to try as many as we could before our departure.

There are some interesting discoveries about how difficult is to be in America without residential address.  I’ll share that in the next post, since it is time to go out for dinner.