Brandon O'Brien

Saturday, August 30, 2008 @ 10:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

Today is the wedding day! We started out heading up to the Wartburg Castle which isn't too far from Frottstadt. The castle was in great shape thanks to some restorations in the past. We were all pretty hungover from the night before but it was a fun time seeing and exploring the castle. Scott and Stefanie had some photos taken here before we went to the equivalent of their city hall for the official marriage signing.

After the wedding vows were done in front of a small group, everyone gathered in the town square for some traditional ceremonies and champagne. One thing they had to do was cut a giant heart out of a sheet with some dull scissors and then Scott had to carry Stefanie through it. After this, they got in a horse drawn cart and were taken to the reception venue.

Once we got to the venue, Scott and Stefanie had to saw a log in half using an extremely long and flexible saw. This was supposed to represent the give and take in a marriage. It was pretty funny watching them try to keep the saw moving.

As the night carried on, there was some delicious food, a huge variety of desserts and even more booze. This was followed by a lot of dancing and celebrating late into the night.

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.

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Tags: germany, frottstadt

Posted from: Germany

Friday, August 29, 2008 @ 9:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

We all checked out of the hostel by 6:00 this morning (tough after all the drinking yesterday) so we could catch our first train in the journey up to Frottstadt. Our first train left Munich at 7:22am with a connection in Saalfeld and Neudietendorf before finally arriving in Frottstadt at 11:30am.

We met Scott and Stefanie at the train station and they drove us through town and to the hotel we'd be staying at for the ceremony.

The main event of the day was the big reception / party that Stefanie's family threw. There was an overwhelming amount of beer flowing and everyone had a great time hanging out and catching up.

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.

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Tags: germany, munich, frottstadt

Posted from: Germany

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.

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Tags: germany, munich

Posted from: Germany

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 @ 9:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

We arrived in Munich a couple weeks before Oktoberfest, but there was still a lot of beer to be drunk! Our train from Paris departed at 7:25am and got us into Munich at 1:30pm after a transfer in Stuttgart. The train systems throughout Europe are incredible and do a great job of getting you around. This trip was my first time using the trains and I really came to appreciate how easy they were to use.

After we got to Munich, we checked into our room at the Euro Youth Hostel and then set out to meet up with Patrick, Chrissy, Scott and the rest of the gang that showed up for the wedding. Our meeting spot was the Hofbrauhaus! I tried ordering a half liter of beer but was shamed by the waitress into ordering a full liter, haha. We also had some sausages with good German mustard. All in all the experience was fantastic.

After beer and food, we wandered around Munich and somehow ended up at a playground. We goofed around on the ropes for a while before we stumbled on the Oktoberfest grounds and walked around there as they were setting up.

We finished the night at another beer garden before heading back to the hostel to call it a night.

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.

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Tags: germany, munich

Posted from: Germany

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 @ 9:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

Today was spent doing more sightseeing around Paris. The highlights today were the Eiffel Tower and Versailles.

We started off the day by walking over to the Eiffel Tower and getting some pics of it from the ground. After that we took the train up to Versailles and spent some time in the museum and the gardens. I remember being extremely overwhelmed with the crowds inside the building and being so relieved when we got out into the gardens and had some space to breathe.

After we got back into Paris proper, we went back to the Eiffel Tower where we took the elevator up to the viewing platform. There was some lady behind us in line that kept bumping into us even though the line wasn't moving. It was pretty annoying and only played into my dislike of crowds, lol. The views from the top of the viewing area were amazing though. You could see the entire city spread out below you.

After the observation deck, we hung around for a little while until dusk and the tower was light up with some bright blue lights. The photos were incredible with the sunset and the blue tower.

This was our last night in Paris. Tomorrow we set off for Munich to meet up with the rest of the wedding gang!

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.

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Tags: france, paris, eiffel tower, versailles

Posted from: France

Monday, August 25, 2008 @ 9:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

After recovering from a huge travel day, we spent today sightseeing around Paris. The main sights included the Louvre, Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe.

Some of the artwork in the Louvre was pretty interesting. I also remember the huge mass of people trying to get a shot of the Mona Lisa. We kept trying to find the Venus de Milo sculpture but kept getting lost. Eventually we did find it and got several pictures, lol.

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.

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The Louvre

Mona Lisa

Notre Dame

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Tags: paris, louvre, notre dame

Posted from: France

Sunday, August 24, 2008 @ 11:00 PM in 2008 Europe Wedding

Today was one of the longest travel days I've experienced. Neeta and I flew from Albuquerque to Chicago where we had a long enough layover to get pizza with her parents. After getting back to the airport, we met up with Eric who flew in. Our next leg was a flight to Zurich which got us on the ground at 12:20pm local time. We had about 6 hours to kill in Zurich before catching a trail to Paris.

We mostly spent our time in Zurich aimlessly wandering around, trying to beat the jet lag. I remember being extremely tired and not really feeling like we had enough time before our train to really do much.

Zurich was a beautiful city and I'd love to go back and actually spend a little more time there relaxing. 6 hours just wasn't long enough.

Our train ride to Paris was about 4 hours long and got us in around 10:30pm. When we finally got to the hotel, we were all extremely wiped out from being on the move for as long as we were.

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.

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Tags: zurich, paris

Posted from: France

Tuesday, December 25, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in General Travel

This year my parents decided to book a four-day cruise for the family. The cruise stopped in Key West and Cozumel, Mexico each for a day and then we had a day at sea on the way back to Tampa. The cruise was a lot of fun aside from some of the huge lines we had to wait in to get on and off the ship in the ports. The ship was the Royal Caribbean "Grandeur of the Sea" and was a little smaller than the cruise we went on a few years ago (this one didn't have the putt-putt course on the 9th floor).

In Key West we went on the "Conch Train"... a tour through the island that pointed out different historical facts and showed various aspects of the island. The tour guide was funny and informative and made the tour fun. After that we walked up and down Duvaul street (the main drag in Key West) and went into a lot of the little shops. There were a lot of bums/street performers lining most of Duvaul street. Some of the better ones were the people who dress up like statues and pose. That night was formal night on the cruise, so we had to leave the island a little early to get dressed up and do photos and everything. The food was good and we had some wine with dinner.

The second stop was Cozumel, Mexico. When we got off the boat we took a taxi to Chankanaab State Park where we planned to relax on the beach and snorkel. When we got there, we picked out some seats and rented some snorkeling gear and got into the water. The water was surprisingly clear and warm. We stayed there for a few hours and then got a taxi back into town where we walked through some shops. The shops mostly had the same things over and over... if you saw one store, you saw about 95% of them. Instead of eating on the boat we grabbed dinner at a restaurant overlooking the main street and ocean.

Our last day on the ship was spent at sea. I spent most of this day laying out on the deck or in the hot tub. When not relaxing I was usually eating. All the free food on the ship was definitely cool and I got my fare share of food on the trip.

The trip went by pretty fast but it was still fun. Hopefully next time we won't have to wait in lines like we did this time and we can cruise for a few more days.

I uploaded some of the photos I took from the cruise. Check them out by clicking on the image above or the photo icon below.

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Saturday, April 28, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

I'm trying to take one day each week and go on a few mile hike and explore the area around Albuquerque. Today I decided I'd go up to the top of the three extinct volcanoes just west of Albuquerque. They're located in the same Petroglyph National Monument that I went hiking in last weekend.

The day was perfect. There were very few clouds in the sky and it was probably 80 degrees with a little bit of wind. The hike I took went through all 3 of the big volcano cones and was probably about a 3 mile hike. The views were pretty neat from up at the peaks and completely different than what you find down in the city or over at the Sandias.

The hike lasted a couple hours and I took about 140 pics with my Nikon D50. There were very few people out when I was there... in fact, I went about an hour without seeing any other people. It was a nice relaxing hike. I think next week I'm going to hit up the La Luz trail over on the north side of the Sandias.

I uploaded some of the photos I took from the hike. Check them out by clicking on the image above or the photo icon below.

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Sunday, April 22, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

Today I was working on some website stuff and kept looking out my window and getting distracted by how nice it was. After wrapping a few things up I decided to take my Nikon D50 out to the Petroglyph National Monument here in Albuquerque to check it out.

I got there at about 2:30 and saw there was a sign in the parking lot saying the gates closed at 5:00. I was thinking about trying to get all the way to the Volcanic cones, but realized that was a lot farther than I had time to go. The temperature was perfect, but it started to cloud over after I had been walking for a while. The hike was mostly on sand with some desert brush and a lot of basalt rocks laying everywhere.

On the rocks there are Petroglyphs that were carved into the rocks from the natives between 1300-1600AD. Unfortunately there has been some vandalism around them (people carving their initials into the rocks next to the petroglyphs), but there are some that have been left untouched. I ended up walking for about two hours, which I'm guessing was probably 3-4 miles (considering I was taking a lot of pictures).

I uploaded some of the photos I took from the hike. Check them out by clicking on the image above or the photo icon below. Also, I did use the appropriate color profile on these, so they're much brighter and vivid than the previous sets I've uploaded.

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States