Brandon O'Brien

Wednesday, October 1, 2025 @ 11:46 PM in 2025 Oktoberfest Trip

Today was a strange one. I woke up pretty early, around 7am, and ended up wandering around to get to a Rewe grocery store to grab some food for breakfast. I wasn't really sure what I was in the mood for but I ended up getting a cup of yogurt and an apple. On the way back to the hotel I stopped at a coffee shop nearby and got a cup of coffee to bring back to the room while I ate breakfast and got a little work done.

It was significantly colder today than yesterday but that wasn't too bad. It actually felt nice outside and stayed mostly sunny for the day. We had two tables reserved at the Hacker-Pschorr tent but there was some kind of an emergency situation and they shut the Oktoberfest grounds down until 5pm. This meant we had to change plans since we couldn't use our reservations today. We ended up all meeting up at the English Garden at the Chinese Tower biergarten a little after noon. Before heading there, I wanted to get some food in my stomach so got a Döner kabob before we met up.

At the biergarten, we hung out for several hours drinking beer, enjoying the weather and having some food. When it got closer to 5pm, we decided to test our luck and head to the Oktoberfest grounds and see if we could find any tables. Most of the group wanted to take an Uber to get to the grounds but a few of us decided just to take public transportation after seeing how long it was going to take for an Uber to arrive. The few of us who took public transport made it to the fest grounds pretty quick but were faced with some extremely daunting entry lines.

We almost gave up after waiting in line for a while but as we were leaving we found another entrance that had basically no people at it and were able to get in pretty fast. We heard about the Oide Wiesen which is supposed to be a more quiet and relaxed area where they have a big beer tent, a museum and some rides. Luckily, we got a table at the Festzelt Tradition (traditional tent) and had a liter of Augustiner beer there. The rest of the crew ended up doing some carnival rides and then we met up with them at Lowenbrau again where they had found a couple free tables. The difference in atmosphere between the traditional tent and Lowenbrau was intense. The traditional tent had music but it was pretty mellow and there were families with kids around, no one standing on tables, etc. Lowenbrau was extremely loud, packed and full of people dancing on the tables.

We hung out at Lowenbrau for a couple hours before calling it a night. On the way back to the hotel I grabbed some more sausage from one of the stands as a late dinner. The walk back was pretty cold, with temps in the 40s. Tomorrow is another afternoon session at Lowenbrau, assuming there aren't any other issues.

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Tags: oktoberfest, munich, germany

Posted from: Germany

Tuesday, October 1, 2013 @ 6:24 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 97

The hostel doesn't have free breakfast so I went out and got some kind of stuffed pastry around the corner. I wasn't sure what was in it but it ended up being some kind of tasty cream. After that I set off to go find the tourist office to pick up a Use-It guide that I've come to appreciate when they're available.

The office was closed but they had a bunch of the guides available outside so I grabbed one and set off on the walk the guide suggests. They called it the "Too much history" walk and it takes you by a lot of the main sights to see on the Ringstrasse.

Since I started pretty early in the morning, the sun was rather harsh and made for some bad photos. It was really beautiful walking around though, even if I wasn't able to capture it. The buildings are massive and they're usually surrounded by big gardens to relax in. Even though they were built to look old, pretty much all the main sights at the beginning of the walk were built in the late 19th century.

I went into some of the famous coffee houses where people like Sigmund Freud hung out. I didn't end up getting any coffee though since spending what I normally spend on an entire day's worth of food for one cup of coffee didn't seem like a great idea.

I also walked by Sigmund Freud's house on the way to the Danube Canal. The canal walk is known for and was filled with graffiti. I continued past the Ruprechtskirche (the oldest church in Vienna, built in 740) and then headed into a busy cafe/restaurant/shopping area. The guide mentioned an extremely hidden hole in the wall microbrewery that makes killer wood fired stuffed pitas. It sounded delicious so I spent about 20 minutes hunting it down. The streets are like a maze and after making a few loops through the general area I thought it was, I found it.

The place is called Kolar and it really is on a random street that is hidden really well. I went in and there were only two people there waiting to pick up some food. The ambiance of the place was great. It was too dark inside to take photos but imagine an old dark cellar with low domed/arced ceilings, firewood stacked along an entire wall and a blazing wood fired oven in the corner next to the bar filled with their own beers and you're starting to get the idea.

At first I just ordered their Dunkel (dark) beer and then looked at the menu. The entire thing was in German and I really had no idea what was what but I was able to figure out they have a daily special each day. In my rough translations I was able to figure out it was prosciutto, spinach, tomato, parmesan and "cream". I ordered one and a few minutes later it came out. It was delicious and completely filling.

As I was drinking my beer and eating my food, more and more people flooded in. By the time I left there were at least a dozen people in the tiny area ordering food and drinks. If you ever find yourself in Vienna, definitely check out Kolar.

There wasn't too much left on the walking route but it did bring me through some really ritzy shopping areas and finally ended at the Stephansdom church. It's hard to capture these massive buildings in one shot since all the buildings are so close together. The church dates back to 1170 and has some really neat architecture.

I wandered around a little bit more then came back to the hostel. They have washers and dryers downstairs so I wanted to take advantage of those before they were all used. I showered then went down and threw everything in the washing machine. Unfortunately the dryer malfunctioned or something when I was upstairs waiting and everything came out still pretty wet. All my clothes are currently drying upstairs in the room, lol. I'm hoping my jeans are dry by the morning since I don't have any dry long pants to wear now.

I cooked up some dinner (mixed veggies and italian grilled cheese). I love how easy and good some simple meals can be.

I have another full day to spend here in Vienna tomorrow and I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I might try to find a free walking tour or just go explore some of the markets. One of the largest and oldest markets in Vienna is literally outside the hostel. I also need to hunt down some schnitzel before I leave.

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Tags: daily journal, vienna, austria

Posted from: Austria