Julie | This International Life

The Glasgow School of Art

15 July 201430 May 2014

I’m a bit embarrassed to say that we’ve only been to Glasgow once, and that was years ago when we were visiting Edinburgh from Munich. The highlight of the short afternoon we spent in the city was a guided tour through the Mackintosh Building at Glasgow School of Art. This architectural masterpiece incorporated a beautiful combination of Art Deco and Japanese-inspired details, and housed many examples of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s iconic furniture (as well as a library and working studios for current art school students).

Scotch Whisky: a Dalwhinnie Distillery Tour

15 July 201421 April 2014

On a recent trip to the Western Highlands, we made a spontaneous stop for a tour at Dalwhinnie Distillery, around a two-hour drive from Edinburgh.

Springtime in Great Britain

17 April 201417 April 2014

Last weekend we drove down to visit some friends in Birmingham. Along the way, spring was in full bloom.

Question Time at the Scottish Parliament

15 July 201428 March 2014

Down at the lower end of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, across the street from the queen’s summer house, you’ll find the architectural anomaly that is the Scottish Parliament. You’ll have no trouble picking it out from the surrounding medieval buildings that make up Old Town.

Eating Tokyo: Kushiage Hantei

3 July 20154 March 2014

Kushiage was one of the many types of Japanese dining we experienced in Tokyo. It basically consists of deep-fried food on bamboo sticks, but that description doesn’t really do it justice.

Broadway, baby

14 July 201419 February 2014

This post is basically just a couple tips for anyone who might be hoping to see some theater in New York City.

Edinburgh: experiencing the Scotch Whisky Experience

15 July 201412 February 2014

On our recent bout of being tourists in our home town, we headed up the Royal Mile to the Scotch Whisky Experience. Edinburgh itself doesn’t contain any whisky distilleries, so tourists in the city seeking knowledge of Scotland’s great liquid usually end up here.

Notes from a winter in Edinburgh

15 July 20144 February 2014

Despite being low on snow (one of my favorite wintery things), Edinburgh is extremely alluring in the winter months. (Stop laughing – I’m serious.) Winter just suits Edinburgh, with its medieval architecture and cozy pubs and whisky and fireplaces and all. I almost don’t want spring to come.

Edinburgh: learning the secrets of the Royal Mile

15 July 201414 January 2014

Secrets Royal Mile 2 — The unicorn-topped mercat cross

There are a plethora of walking tours on offer in Edinburgh, with good reason: it’s a highly walkable city, bursting with history, architecture, and monuments all within a relatively compact city center. In the months since we’ve moved here, we’ve walked all over the place, but always in the disorganized manner of those who are not on a walking tour. It was time to change that.

A snowy New Year’s in Finland, without snow

9 January 2014

Happy New Year! Where did you ring in 2014? We seem to start out each year somewhere different (in our five years in Munich, I think we were only there for its warzone-like Sylvester once). This year we had the pleasure of being invited to join some friends at their log cabin on a lake in a remote part of Finland. We’d lapped up their stories of snowy snowy New Year’s Eves past and could not wait to experience it ourselves.