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 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, September 30, 2025 @ 10:57 PM in 2025 Oktoberfest Trip

Today was a long day, as most travel days are. I picked Ben up around 9:30am in Santa Fe and then we drove to Albuquerque to catch our flight. The first flight was from ABQ to Houston, which was uneventful. From Houston we caught our direct flight to Munich. The flight was delayed a little bit but no big deal. After we boarded the flight to Munich, I watched 28 Years Later before dinner, then took half of a sleeping pill after a few glasses of wine to help me pass out. Dinner service consisted of beef, chicken or pasta. I ordered the chicken which ended up being a curry dish with rice. While tasting good, it didn't really fill me up too much.

Unfortunately sleep didn't come easily and I only had a couple hours of sleep in total for the 10 hour flight. In addition to 28 Years Later, I watched Thunderbolts again which was something entertaining. Breakfast on the flight was either a cinnamon roll or a breakfast sandwich, so I opted for the sandwich. We landed in Munich around 10am and then got stuck in a massive customs line. Fortunately it was moving pretty fast and they were breaking people off to go to a different customs area which helped speed things up.

After Ben got his bag, we booked a day ticket for the transit system and then got on a train to Munich. It was about noon so we weren't able to check into our hotel, but we were able to drop our bags off and go to Augustiner Keller where I had a beer and a Pfefferschnitzel. The beer was way too easy to drink, probably because I was very dehydrated. After lunch, we started walking around to kill some time but the rain came and it started coming down pretty hard. We made it to the Marienplatz but then hopped on the S-Bahn and took it back to the station closest to our hotel. We killed some time in the lobby until we could check in.

At 4:15 I met up with Mike and Anne and the other 9 people who were going to the Lowenbrau tent at Oktoberfest tonight. We had a 10 person table reserved for 5:00-10:00. Each seat at the table comes with vouchers for two beers and an order of a half chicken. The Oktoberfest grounds are filled with all kinds of rides, food booths, carnival games and obviously beer tents. It was like being at the midway of a big state fair.

We got seated at our table and ordered a round of beers for everyone. It started off pretty mellow but as the hours passed and people drank more and more, the crowd started getting really loud with lots of dancing on tables and singing. It was a really cool experience, even if the people behind us were extremely drunk and kept bumping into us.

The tables are really crammed in there so there isn't really space to move around once you're seated. I ended up having about 2.5 liters of beer and a half chicken. We all ended up leaving around 9:30 and then got some sausages at a stand outside the Lowenbrau tent.

The walk back to the hotel only took about 15 minutes and by the time I got back I was ready to sleep. Between several big beers and very little sleep on the flight, I was beat.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: oktoberfest, munich, germany

Posted from: Germany

Thursday, August 28, 2025 @ 3:31 PM in 2025 Oktoberfest Trip

Oktoberfest has been something I've wanted to do for a long time. I've been in Europe three times, all within a few weeks of Oktoberfest, but I was never able to get down to it. In 2008 I was in Munich a couple weeks before it and actually got to walk through the grounds while they were setting up the tents. In 2013 I was in Belgium, the Netherlands and northern Germany while Oktoberfest was happening. Then, again in 2022, I was in Munich a few weeks before the festival as well. This time, the grounds were locked down and we couldn't walk through them, but we got to see the tents from a distance.

For 2025, this is all changing. Mike ended up getting a huge group of friends together which meant that it would be easier to justify reserving tables at the various tents. In all, there should be about 20 of us going. I'll be flying over there with Ben, hitting Oktoberfest with Mike & crew for a few days, then Ben and I will continue on to Austria and Czech Republic before heading back home. We'll be gone for about two weeks and will visit a lot of breweries and drink a lot of great beer while we're traveling around.

Full Itinerary

Date	Location	Notes
Monday, September 29th	Albuquerque, NM, USA	Leave for Munich from Albuquerque at 12:07pm
Tuesday, September 30th	Munich, DE	Arrive in Munich at 9:40am and possibly hit the Lowenbrau evening tent
Wednesday, October 1st	Munich, DE	Schutzen-Festzelt tent, noon-4:30pm
Thursday, October 2nd	Munich, DE	Lowenbrau tent, noon-4:30pm
Friday, October 3rd	Munich, DE	Hacker-Festzelt tent, 12-5pm
Saturday, October 4th	Munich, DE	Day trip to Andechs
Sunday, October 5th	Munich, DE to Salzburg, AT	Taking a train with a stop in Traunstein
Monday, October 6th	Salzburg, AT	A day exploring Salzburg
Tuesday, October 7th	Salzburg, AT	Day trip to Schonram
Wednesday, October 8th	Salzburg, AT to Prague, CZ	On the train between cities
Thursday, October 9th	Prague, CZ	Day trip to Pilzen?
Friday, October 10th	Prague, CZ	Exploring Prague
Saturday, October 11th	Prague, CZ	Exploring Prague
Sunday, October 12th	Prague, CZ	Exploring Prague
Monday, October 13th	Prague, CZ to Munich, DE	Catch a flight from Prague to Munich, then from Munich back to the US

I'll do my best to update my blog each day with what we've been up to as the trip progresses!

Posted from: United States