Brandon O'Brien

Friday, October 3, 2025 @ 9:44 PM in 2025 Oktoberfest Trip

This morning, we chilled in the hotel room for a little while before heading out and getting some coffee from a place called Suuapinga Café. Before leaving, I had some pomegranate yogurt and banana so there would be something in my stomach. We had to take the U-bahn a stop from the Hoptbahnhof to get to the coffee sho, but it wasn't a big deal. I had a cappuccino which tasted great. After getting back to the hotel, we had about 45 minutes before meeting up with everyone to head to our table reservations at Hacker-Pschorr tent from noon - 5pm.

We met the whole crew at Mike and Anne's hotel and then walked over to the fest grounds. When we showed up at the tent, it was already pretty rowdy which was a change from the last few sessions we've been at. After ordering a round of beers, the waiter told us we should probably go ahead and order food because the wait times get pretty bad as the session goes on. I ordered a half chicken with some potato salad and most people ordered either a half chicken or something else. Somehow we ended up with an extra pork belly dish which tasted pretty good too. Both the chicken and pork dish were really salty, which would have been offputting in other situations but was really good when drinking a lot of beer. The waiters here were a little less laid back than at Lowenbrau, asking for tips and generally being a little more intense than other tents. They were also selling beers to basically anyone who had money, even if they weren't at a table (which was kinda against the rules, but they were making a lot of money that way).

I ended up having about 3 liters over the course of 5 hours, then Ben and I headed out to meet up with another acquaintance for dinner. We were meeting up with another brewer who happened to move to Germany and was going to train at the Weihenstephaner institute to learn the ins and outs of brewing there. We left the grounds and somehow got turned around and it took us a while to get back to the area we were meeting him. After meeting up, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant called Madame Chutney. I got a chicken korma dish which tasted really good. Having some more food in my stomach really helped, considering how much booze I had in my system.

After eating dinner, Ben and I came back to our hotel where we've been winding down for bed. Tomorrow we're heading to Herrsching and then doing a hike up to the Andech's monastery brewery where we'll have some beer and food before heading back to Munich. It looks like there may be some rain tomorrow afternoon / evening but hopefully we're back before it hits.

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Tags: oktoberfest, germany, munich

Posted from: Germany

Thursday, October 3, 2013 @ 9:01 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 99

It was pretty nice outside when I left Vienna today. Still really cold, but the sun was out and bright. It's a shame it wasn't like that yesterday morning when I went to Schobrunn palace.

My flight to Florence was at 11:40am today and not really being sure how long it would take to get to the airport by train I ended up leaving the hostel around 8:30am. I took the U4 line to the connection for the airport but I had just missed the 8:45 service and had to wait until 9:15. I finally got to the airport around 9:45 and after walking around what felt like a maze to get to the checkin counter, I was finally checked in and through security with about an hour to kill before my flight started boarding which is just about what I was hoping for.

I had a coffee then got on a little shuttle to take me to the plane. It was another dual prop plane similar to the one I flew from Dublin to Edinburgh. This one was a little bigger but it was still pretty noisy inside. Once we got close to Florence the clouds broke up and there were some amazing views of the Tuscan countryside as we made our approach.

Once I landed I got my bag then went over to catch the shuttle bus for the train station. Since there's no station attached to the airport you need to catch a shuttle for 6 euros. I waited for a little while and it finally showed up and dropped me off in a super busy mess of people by the bus/train station.

One nice thing I noticed right away was how warm it was. It was in the low 70's which was a full 20 degrees warmer than I've been experiencing for the last week or so. The jeans, long sleeved shirt and jacket I had on were definitely a bit much.

I got some cash and then had a sundried tomato, ham and cheese sandwich while waiting for my train to Lucca. A few nights ago I bought the train ticket online and had to specify a departure time. I wasn't sure how long it would take to get through all the airport mess, catch the shuttle and get to the train station. Because of all those factors, I was a little hesitant to book some of the earlier departures. I ended up having to wait around at the train station for about 2 hours unfortunately.

For the rest of my travel in Italy I'll probably just buy my tickets at the station. I thought ordering them online would be cheaper but I checked today and there wasn't any savings involved.

The train ride to Lucca brought me through some gorgeous little towns, vineyards and countryside. The entire area is surrounded by mountains which is nice to see. The last time I saw true mountains was way back in Wales.

Once in Lucca I walked through the city to my hostel. Lucca is surrounded by its old city walls which helps keep car traffic out of the city. It's basically one humungous pedestrian zone with winding cobblestone streets lined with typical Tuscan buildings (orange roofs, stucco walls, etc).

After checking into the hostel I took a little walk to the 3 store to get a SIM card for my phone. I'm going to be in Italy for a little over 2 weeks so I figure having a data connection will be nice. I'm also tired of the shoddy wifi I've been experiencing lately too.

After getting the SIM card I walked part of the city walls and went to the grocery store to pick up some muffins for breakfast, apples and oranges to snack on and a bottle of wine that I haven't opened yet. Unfortunately this hostel doesn't have a kitchen and I don't have a cup to drink the wine. I might just end up doing it ghetto style and drinking straight from the bottle.

Once I finished up at the grocery it was already dark out so I found a pizza place and got a wood fired pizza for dinner and ate it at the hostel. Tomorrow I'll explore Lucca all day and see what it has to offer. Saturday is calling for 80% chance of rain so that might just be a work/catchup day. Then on Sunday I'm going to head to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower.

Arriving in Italy today has really recharged me. I was starting to get a little tired of all the traveling but I think a dramatic change in scenery, climate and culture was very much needed. I've always loved Italy and so far it hasn't disappointed me.

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Tags: daily journal, italy, lucca

Posted from: Italy