2010 | This International Life

Munich’s most delicious season

10 December 201425 November 2010

Look what opened today! Munich is already a fairytale-adorable city; toss in Christmas markets all over the place and it gets so cute it makes your cheeks hurt. I celebrated the start of my favorite time of year with some roasted chestnuts (which is probably the most Thanksgiving-like food I’ll eat all day). You can read about … Read more

Christiania: Copenhagen’s social experiment

17 July 201417 November 2010

When I asked friends for sightseeing recommendations in Copenhagen, Christiania came back as the top answer. So I was thrilled to see that one of the tours offered for the first day of TBEX was to this mysterious little area.

TBEX Copenhagen: travel that must be blogged

17 July 201414 November 2010

I had reservations about attending TBEX, but they were fleeting. I’m an introvert who hates mingling. I’m not exactly a professional travel blogger, just someone who travels and blogs about it. I don’t have the attention span to attend lectures and workshops.

Read moreTBEX Copenhagen: travel that must be blogged

A glimpse of Copenhagen

17 July 20147 November 2010

Greetings from Copenhagen. What a beautiful city when the sun is shining! I’ve been here for the past three days for TBEX Europe, a big meeting of travel bloggers from all over the place. I’ve met some interesting people and learned some useful things, and in between I’ve had the chance to explore a little … Read more

Autumn at the Dult

22 June 201131 October 2010

Sure, Oktoberfest is long over, but that doesn’t mean Munich has lost that carnival feeling. As I’ve said before, you’d be hard-pressed to visit this city when there wasn’t some sort of festival (beer-oriented or not) going on. A couple weeks ago it was the Auer Dult, a thrice-yearly event involving rides, carnival food, and lots and lots of kitchenware.

My favorite travel planning websites

22 June 201119 October 2010

I’ve been booking most of my travel online for a good 10 years now. Lots of wonderful innovations have come out in that time, but for the past several years my approach has remained mostly the same: a few reliable go-to websites that get me what I want in a relatively efficient manner. They keep me from losing my mind when I feel myself being pulled into travel-planning-related information overload.

With the launch of several new travel sites this year, it looks like my standard approach might be about to change. While I’m excited to move on to the new and the better, I’m also pretty pleased with my current travel-planning routine. So before I review the new sites, I thought I’d write about my standard plan of attack up until now.

Historisches Wiesn: Oktoberfest’s 200th anniversary celebration

3 July 201417 October 2010

UPDATE: The historical section of Oktoberfest was such a hit that it will be back in 2011, rebranded as the Oide Wiesn. Nostalgia and beer for everyone!

Entrance to Oktoberfest in general is free, but this year, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the first Oktoberfest, visitors were offered the privilege of paying for entry to a small section of the wiesn. This section promised something special: old-timey fun.

As seen on our Saturday morning walk

6 October 2010

I can’t help but wonder about the back story of this piece of notebook paper we found abandoned beside a walking path in Munich. Any ideas?

Mad Schuhplattler

23 September 201023 September 2010

Schuhplattler at 200th anniversary Oktoberfest from zurika on Vimeo. In honor of the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest, a historical area has been set up next to the regular old tents and rides. It costs €4 to get into the historical area, but that €4 includes all kinds of entertainment, such as fancy historical whip-cracking and … Read more

Oktoberfest: where to pee

21 July 201421 September 2010

This blog has been getting an amusingly high number of hits this week from people googling phrases such as “where to pee Oktoberfest” (second only to those searching for “Oktoberfest sex”). Don’t let your fear of inadequate toilets keep you away, folks: there are plenty of places to pee at Oktoberfest.