Merseyside

As a new year begins, I find myself on the eastern edge of the Irish Sea. An extremely nice, caring woman in Galway, the manager of the little hotel I was staying at, suggested that I consider trying to settle in Liverpool, that I could find an affordable rental flat there. She seemed to know what she was talking about.

The title of this blog does not refer to the fact that I'm an American born in Brooklyn, New York and now living in Western Europe. That's true, I've lived off and on in Europe for more than twenty years -- Italy, Spain, and in the UK once before.

Regardless of what happens after Brexit, the UK and Ireland have enjoyed a long, special relationship. I expect that to continue and I hope to be part of it. I can be a legal resident in either the UK or Europe because I hold both American and Irish passports.

This stranger is from the twentieth century trying to live in a place that I find very odd and hard to adjust to. The twenty-first century.




Hold on, please. I'm almost done with the dry facts and background of my situation.

I lost my rent-stabilized apartment on Mulberry Street in New York's Little Italy to a fire in February 2018. Since then, I've tried to live in Brooklyn, San Miguel de Allende, Montreal, Seville, Sligo, and Galway. It's not been fun trying to navigate the various bureaucracies to try to become a permanent resident in those places. And it's been no fun at all living out of a suitcase. No, it's not the same as taking a holiday to some exotic location.

Next week, I will start this new blog.