Brandon O'Brien

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

Sunday, August 28, 2022 @ 7:41 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 4

After a late night at the wedding, we got as much sleep as we could but were still up and hungry by about 7:30am. We had another big breakfast buffet and got to say goodbye to Tom, Kay, Scott, Stef, Marrit and several other people who happened to be up early enough to catch breakfast. Once we finished up, we went back to the room to pack up our bags which was quite the undertaking. We already had a pretty heavy roller bag but adding the steins and a few beers added even more weight.

Our plan was to walk all the way down to the train station with the big roller bag, but Allie and Al said they'd take it in the taxi with them. That was really helpful and saved us some awkward pushing and pulling on some of the hills down to the station. It was raining a little bit but not too bad. Sam and I actually beat Allie and Al down to the station so we went ahead and got our tickets. A lot of people ended up being on this train back to Munich or the Munich Airport. We got to ride with Allie, Al, Deb and Amir.

Once the train started rolling, it really started to downpour and rained the entire ride down to Munich. We said our goodbyes to everyone at the station and set off for the hotel. Fortunately our hotel was pretty close to the train station so it wasn't too long of a walk in the rain to get there. It was only around 1pm and we weren't supposed to be able to check in until 3pm but we figured we'd try. The hotel we're staying at is a different style and doesn't actually have a check-in staff but instead uses a kiosk. I tried to check in but it was telling me our room wasn't ready. It was still raining and we didn't want to have to go to a cafe or something and hang out for two hours with all of our bags. There was a help phone next to the kiosk so I gave it a call and asked if they could check on the room availability. Fortunately they had just cleaned the room so they updated their check-in system and we were able to move in.

We're staying in an extended stay style room which has a small kitchenette and "separate" seating area with a couch and small table (it's really just a basic studio apartment). They have a laundry room in the basement so we'll definitely get a load of clothes going tomorrow. Dakotah has dirtied a lot of his shirts already and it'll be nice to get a fresh start before we head into France.

While Sam was getting things organized at the hotel, I ran out to find some lunch. It was already about 1:30 and I didn't feel like walking too far or waiting too long for food, so I found a restaurant called Doner Deluxe and got the Doner Teller box (basically a doner kebab without the bun but on top of fries). I brought it back to the room and we quickly demolished it.

With full stomachs and it still being gloomy out, we laid down for a while. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fall asleep but Sam got a good nap. Before dinner we opened a beer Mike and Anne handed out in their wedding favor goodie bag. I was looking around for restaurants and found a place called Bento Ya which had a lot of Asian food. Sam and I both got some Ramen which was perfect for a rainy and gloomy day. For some reason they didn't take Visa at the restaurant so we had to pay in cash. All I had was a 50 euro bill and Europeans notoriously hate breaking large bills but we didn't have another choice. We walked around a little bit after dinner but ultimately just came back to the hotel to call it an early night.

Tomorrow we're going to hit the Oktoberfest grounds and then see the Hirschgarten. The plan is to make it a pretty chill day without any real rush to get up in the morning.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: germany, munich, miesbach

Posted from: Germany

Wednesday, August 28, 2013 @ 7:33 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 63

Not too much to report on today. I got up, ate, then went for a long walk along the promenade. I stopped and ate lunch and read for a while then made my way back. Back at the hostel I answered some emails, did a little research into other European cities and then showered.

Rather than head into Belgium on the 2nd, I think I'm going to wait just a little bit longer here in the UK. Another week should be all I need before I'm free to head into mainland Europe without running into the 90 day visa limit.

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Tags: daily journal, england, brighton

Posted from: England

Thursday, August 28, 2008 @ 9:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

Most of today was spent on a bike tour that hit several beer gardens and took us through several of the sights in Munich. We got to see people surfing in the river in the Englischer Garten too.

We ended the night at the Augustiner brewery where we all had some delicious beer.

Note: This post was written about 13 years after I went on this trip. Unfortunately I didn't keep a journal so this is pieced together from our itinerary and photos.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: germany, munich

Posted from: Germany