Brandon O'Brien

Thursday, October 2, 2025 @ 7:41 PM in 2025 Oktoberfest Trip

I got back to the hotel pretty late last night and didn't sleep very well, but still woke up around 7am when the sun started shining into the room. I went out again to get some yogurt, banana and a little breakfast pizza at the local REWE grocery store. On the way back I got some more coffee then worked for a little while before we needed to meet up to head back into the festival grounds.

Before meeting up, Ben and I stopped at a place called Uiguer Kabap and where we each got a really spicey Dürüm (basically everything in a doner but wrapped in a tortilla instead of bread). We didn't know it at the time, but apparently this place is known for how spicy they make their food. They add a lot of chili oil and pepper flakes to it which adds a nice level of heat. By the time I was done with mine, my lips were tingling.

We met up with the rest of the crew at Mike and Anne's hotel and walked to the festival grounds. We had two more tables reserved at the Lowenbrau tent and they ended up being the exact same tables we had on Tuesday night. It started off a lot more mellow since it was the afternoon session but as the hours rolled by, the band got more and more loud and people started dancing on the tables more and more.

I had two and a half liters over the course of the session as well as another half chicken. After our session ended, I decided to call it a day since I wanted some time to chill before bed so I could be a little more refreshed for tomorrow. I met back up with Ben and we went out to a pizza restaurant called Napoli Rush where we each got a pizza. Both were excellent and had great crust and toppings. On the way back we stopped at another grocery store to pick up a few snacks. It's just going to be an early night tonight so I can hopefully catch up on some sleep.

Tomorrow we're going to the Hacker Pschorr tent from noon to five. This will be our first time in that tent and I'm looking forward to a change from Lowenbrau, even though the beer everything else has been great there.

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Tags: oktoberfest, germany, munich

Posted from: Germany

Wednesday, October 2, 2013 @ 3:45 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 98

I got up pretty early this morning because I wanted to get out and see as much of Vienna as possible on my last day here. Since my jeans were still a little wet from the dryer fiasco yesterday I had to wear my hiking pants. It was definitely too cold to be wearing these outside.

I walked to the big market across the street and got a cinnamon roll for breakfast and ate a couple clementines. My first stop was Schobrunn Palace. It's on the U-Bahn line that's just outside the hostel so I hopped on and got to the palace pretty quickly.

In the morning, it was still overcast and pretty windy so I was getting really cold. I thought I had to pay for entrance to the gardens but it was actually free which was nice. I walked around for about an hour and finally got fed up with the cold so I headed back to the train and went to Prater where there's a big ferris wheel and parks. They were setting up a bunch of big beer gardens which unfortunately I wasn't able to partake of.

It was still cold so I got back on the train to the station next to the hostel and then got a doner sandwich at the market. I was looking into getting a schnitzel but I didn't want to pay 13 euros for a flattened, breaded and deep fried piece of meat. I can get one back in Indy for a couple bucks if I really want one.

After I ate and showered, the sun finally came out so I went out for a little walk around the same area I did yesterday. I was kinda hunting for a beer garden to hang out in but I couldn't find anything. All of the places that sold beer were a bit overpriced too.

One interesting thing here is called Strum. It's basically a really low ABV wine that hasn't had a chance to ferment as long as most wines take. They sell it at most cafes here too. I was thinking about trying some but wasn't sure if 4%, incomplete wine was what I was looking for.

Instead, I bought a couple Austrian beers from a local store and brought them back to the hostel to enjoy. Tomorrow I'll get up a little early and head to the airport to catch my flight to Florence. Once in Florence I have to get to Lucca where I'll be spending 4 nights. I've been looking forward to Italy for a long time. I'm glad it's finally almost here!

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Tags: daily journal, vienna, austria

Posted from: Austria