July 10^th is a one year anniversary since we sold our house and all our possessions, and moved 6 boxes to the storage facility. After three lovely weeks in New York, we left US with the one-way ticket. It was July 22^nd, 2013, and today is one-year anniversary.

Since that we lived in 6 countries, stayed in 48 cities/towns/villages, and changed 68 sleeping places.

It looks like we moved a lot, but we do not regret our decision, do not miss the sold house, don’t feel lonely, and still are happily executing our initial plan,  exploring  potential “retirement heavens”, and trying to find places where we would like to stay/live longer.

Originally, we thought to visit more places, but life adjusted our expectations. We did not go to Thailand as planned because of the political situation there last year. Instead, we’ve made some unexpected unplanned moves to Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and glad that we did.

Initially, we were stressed out “running behind the schedule”, but then we though: “Stop overachieving and start living a little … you set your own schedule”.  That realization removed tremendous pressure and we relaxed.

Many friends ask us: “When will you finally arrive?”  Since we do not have any “final” destination, there is no answer to that question.  We just travel around the world, that’s all.  If the place is nice and we want to slow down, then we stay longer.

Another common question is about our social life:  “Did you meet new friends? How do you live without old friends? Is it hard to be together all the time, just two of you?” Etc.

I would say that this is more philosophical discussion about the life style in general, rather than a simple question about us. During the travel we can have whatever we want or need; it has nothing to do with retirement.  We’ve made some new friends and met incredible people that we would never meet otherwise … You can have as much privacy as you need, but if the couple can’t be alone … any lifestyle change will expose that issue anyway and regardless of geography…

What s next for us?

We planned to stay in India till September but suddenly decided to go to Europe, so we are flying to Italy in the beginning of August. One month in Baverno, near Stresa (The Lakes Region), after that doing “Sicilian Carousel” with our friends, then Rome and some other places in Italy (TBD).

In November, we’ll meet other friends from the US in… Burma/Myanmar.  Before and after Burma, we plan to be in Thailand.  This is what we know so far. We’ll keep you posted.