Travel Chat with Ashley & Emily
Ever wondered what really goes on when solo traveling the world? Join Emily from Emily Eats and Explores and Ashley from Ashley gets Around weekly as they air out their crazy travel stories, share travel tips, and just chat about travel! Emily Cooper is a full-time traveler and the creator behind Emily Eats and Explores. In 2022, Emily quit her job in healthcare to travel the world solo and create content. Now, she teaches women how they can make money while they travel the world! Ashley Peterson is a content creator, travel hacker, and AVgeek who’s been to almost 100 countries. She is skilled at finding cheap business class flight deals and runs the only woman owned email subscription service for premium flight deals! You can find her on Instagram at Ashley Gets Around. This is the podcast where Travel Channel meets Bravo! So if you're ready to grab your favorite drink, laugh until you cry, and learn a thing or two from these solo traveling ladies, give this show a follow!
Travel Chat with Ashley & Emily
Christmas Market Recaps: Are Vienna Christmas Markets Worth the Hype?
In this episode of Travel Chat with Ashley and Emily, Ashley and Emily kick off their European Christmas market series in Vienna, a city that completely surprised them. What they both once felt lukewarm about quickly became their favorite stop of the trip thanks to Vienna’s elegant decorations, abundance of Christmas markets, and magical holiday atmosphere. They share how the city transforms during the season, why staying multiple nights is worth it, and how each market offers its own vibe, food, and experience. From palace-front markets and cozy alley stalls to mulled wine mugs, snow globe shopping, and carousel regrets, they break down what made Vienna so special and why it’s now a destination they want to return to every Christmas. They also cover practical tips like what to wear in the cold, cash versus card at the markets, getting around the city, and how to plan your days to enjoy the experience without feeling rushed.
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Welcome to Travel Chat with Ashley and Emily. I'm Ashley from Ashley Gets Around. And I'm Emily with Emily Eats and Explores.
SPEAKER_01:We imagine this podcast is a little bit travel channel, a little bit Bravo.
SPEAKER_00:So grab your favorite beverage and let's go.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome back to Travel Chat with Ashley and Emily. I'm Ashley and I'm so excited because we're going to talk about our Christmas market experience, which I know a lot of you guys were very interested in hearing about. And we had just the best time. Um, well, it was an interesting time, but we had a lot of fun at the Christmas markets. And I think we're gonna just start in order, and we started off in Vienna. So Emily has been to Austria a bunch of times. Uh, one of her favorite cities is in Austria. This was only my second visit. I'd only been to Vienna for eight hours, um, a long time ago. So we're gonna start with Vienna and let's like Emily, I want you to talk to us about like the difference with Vienna at Christmas and normal because I feel like I don't know, you had some interesting takes on Vienna.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so Vienna, that was my fourth time there, which like is so crazy because the first time I went to Vienna, I literally hated it, guys. I got a$110 fine for a transportation issue, issue. I double validated my like train metro kind of ticket, which is, you know, right now if I got a$110 fine, well, one, it's just like scary because you have somebody coming up to you. And I want to preface this by saying they it's one of those cities where it's like almost like an honor system and they probably check tickets like this like twice a year, or or maybe even like pay for a single ticket. So this like never happened. So of course I was like the unlucky one where this happened to me while I was traveling there. Um, it was a huge thing because I didn't have like my ID and stuff on me because I don't like to have my passport on me while I'm out and about. So now I always at least have an ID and always have a copy of my passport. Live and learn. But like when you're on a backpacker budget,$110 plus you're just like, it's just so much money. And I was just like, I hate this city, this is the worst. And I just found it like I found it kind of creepy. Like that's the best way to put it. I was just like, this is I felt like it was in an alternate universe, like everything was just too perfect, everybody was acting too proper, like it was kind of like a boring city. I remember I was out and about at like 8 p.m. and I'm like, this is just weird. Then I went back with my friends, I went back solo, and then obviously the Christmas markets and just going. I I'm not sure if they have other holidays where they decorate the city like this, but I mean, obviously, Vienna isn't a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous city. And just on top of that, they go full out for Christmas. I mean, you have chandeliers where like the pedestrian shopping streets are. You have the gorgeous bows, um, big trees everywhere. Obviously, a ton of markets from like cute and cozy back alley to obviously the main market. And they just outdo they they outdo themselves. Is that am I saying they've outdone themselves for Christmas, and I'm sure they do it every single year. And I absolutely loved it, which I guess is not surprising. Like people always say they love Vienna during Christmas time, and the more that I talk to people, they kind of have the same takes where it's just like there's something like a little, just like a little bit boring and hard about Vienna. But Christmas, dang, it was so beautiful, so elegant. I'm pretty sure it wasn't your it was your favorite city, I think, of the trip, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, honestly, what's funny is that I figured it would be my least favorite. Um, I figured I would like Prague the most and Salzburg the second most, and then Vienna last. And it was the actual the opposite. Um because I had been to Vienna once, and again, I it was the same thing. Like I went on a backpacker budget, which I know people don't believe me when I say that. But um, my friend and I were going from we went to from Poland all the way down to Albania. It wasn't like a true backpacker, like we didn't do hostels, but like we split everything. It was definitely more of like a budget trip. Like we weren't flying between places, we took flex bus a lot of places. And so when we were looking at hotels in Vienna to stay in Vienna for like a night or two, you know, there was nothing under 300 euros. And because we were there kind of in like the late spring, I want to say like April, May. And so it just was just too expensive. We were like, we don't want to spend for a crappy hotel like that much money. Um, and so we ended up just taking the bus to Bratislava, which is like 45 minutes away. I loved Bratislava, by the way. Um, I wish we had, I wish we had had more time because I think we could have done a day trip to Bratislava. Yeah. But I just didn't really love Vienna. Like we did eight hours there. I was like, oh, this is kind of like fine. Like it just looked like Europe, but I don't know. And I'm sure somebody's gonna come in here and be like, Vienna is my favorite city in the entire world. Like, I just didn't think it was fine. Like we, it was a, you know, there were some pretty buildings. We did the gardens, we like did the hop on, hop off bus tour. And I just kind of was like, I'm good. I don't need to come back here. And now I feel like after the Christmas markets, I'm like, oh no, like I need to go to Vienna every year at Christmas. Like it's the new favorite.
SPEAKER_00:It's so beautiful. And I remember when we were figuring out, because we flew into Prague and we took a day trip, which is like a transport service to Vienna. And I remember when we were like deciding on this itinerary, I was like, I remember you saying I I you were pretty adamant about we should go to Vienna, we should go to Vienna. And then I was like, I was like, oh, like I was kind of back and forth about it because it, you know, it still wasn't like my favorite place. And so I remember I'm like, okay, we can go to Vienna. I was like, we we could have like two days there, and then we need to move on. And then we did end up adding another day, which I think was a really good idea. So we ended up being there for what four days, right? Yeah, I think we, I think total, yeah, about four days. About four days. And the last day we did, it was the last day, right? The uh the last night was the Schoenbrum Palace, which ended up being my favorite market of the trip, which is a little bit more outside the city. It's like a half an hour outside the city. And so I do think if you have like a night or two in Vienna, of course, you can hit the main spots. You can walk around the main shopping area, you can see all of the gorgeous decor. You can hit the main market and some of the smaller ones that are around the cathedral and things like that, but you just won't get to any of the other ones on the outskirts. So I was really happy we did add in that other night because that ended up being my favorite market. Just so gorgeous to be to like have this beautiful decorated market in front of a gorgeous palace. Like it was very storybook, like just very very beautiful and romantic and what you really want out of a Christmas market.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I also I still am sad. I'm still a little sad that we, I just really wanted to go to the sauna. I was like so done. But we they even have this like light show that you like walk through with all these like thousands and thousands of Christmas lights, which from what we could see from kind of like the outside, it looked really gorgeous and it was like set to music. Um, that was like an additional cost. It ended up being, I think we got there at like eight. The last you basically had 15 minutes to decide because I think they stopped letting people in at 8:15 because it takes you about an hour to walk through it. And I was just kind of like, I'd rather go to the hotel and do the sauna, which I'm glad we did. The sauna was great. Um, but I loved that market, it was just so beautiful, so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:Just like, yeah, everything that you want. The food was really good. The food was really good. Drinks, like everything. I felt like it was crowded, but not too, too crowded. Um, they had like a whole section for like the lint chocolate. That was really cute too. And they had um a cute little like sleigh setup, a lot of adorable picture areas, um, the little Ferris wheel that you could go on, which Ashley would not ride with me, but because it was the one, it was the Ferris wheel, you guys that it shakes at the end.
SPEAKER_01:It's like the Disney one where it's like loose, and I said, I'm not getting on that. I've got it.
SPEAKER_00:You're like, hell no. I understand the the carnival type Ferris wheels, I get it, because they're just like set up and you take them down, so they are a little bit sketchy. But yeah, curling. Oh, they also curling. They did, they did. Yep. Ice skating, a lot of really cool stuff. Um, the main market was the first one that we went to, pretty much.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was very beautiful, but it was very busy.
SPEAKER_00:Very busy. I know a lot of people obviously want to go there because they have the heart that comes out of the little box and goes past the market. I don't really understand the hype on that. Like, do you know the story behind it? Or like why?
SPEAKER_01:Now that you're asking, I can't remember. Um, it's like a historic thing. They've done it for like years.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so it's just, it's just it, yeah, okay. That makes sense. Because I was, I mean, I saw it and I was like, okay, this is cool, like a heart, this floating. Like, I've seen the ones where they have Santa on the sleigh and he's like going over the market, and I'm like, that's really cool. The heart That's in Switzerland.
SPEAKER_01:That one was in Switzerland.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that looks amazing. I definitely have so many Christmas markets on my bucket list now where I'm like, okay, now I have to go. Like, I'm definitely not that type of person that's like, once you go to one, you've gone to all of them. I don't feel that way at all. I feel like they all all have a they all have different vibes, unique vibe, yes. And different things that they sell and different, all different things. But I absolutely loved it.
SPEAKER_01:I think we should talk about like the different because I I think that that's maybe like something that people think before they go is that each market is gonna have similar food. And I do think there is overlap, like you can get the different wine and like different stuff at some of the same markets. But like, for example, like we got goulash at the church market in a bread bowl. And while I did see goulash other places, I never saw it in a bread bowl.
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and then the only place I saw the fondue was at the palace. Um, yeah, yeah. That was the only one, and that was like really high on my list to get the fondue, to get the fondue. Um, and so each market does have kind of have some unique things, and the mugs are all different. I have a whole collection of mugs now.
SPEAKER_00:We have way too many Christmas mugs, but you you just, I don't know, when you're in the moment, you just want them and they're so cute. And I I am happy I have some. Some are way more practical than others, some are just like too tiny. I probably would not use. I honestly I wanted the boot mug so bad. We had this whole adventure to find the boot mugs, and then we ended up not getting as many boot mugs as we wanted. But I will probably use that as a decoration.
SPEAKER_01:I probably You're gonna love this. I can't, I was trying to wrap. Oh, I was trying to find the boot mug to wrap for my sister-in-law for because she really wanted it. I can't find the stupid thing. What? I don't know where it is, so I don't know if I lost it, if it fell out of my bag, if it broke. Like, yeah, I don't know. So my god, we went on a journey for those guys. Oh my gosh, we went on such a journey. So the thing is, I think a lot of people don't realize. So some it's only certain markets that have the mugs, which I thought all the so it's basically a thing in Germany and some parts of France and Austria. Yeah. And even in Salzburg, there were a lot of paper.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, paper, plastic, yeah. You could find a little bit more of a mix with that.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And the mugs, like the mugs that we're talking about, this is like a nice ceramic mug with a unique print on it, or um, some of them had like a raised picture or something along those lines. Like they're mugs that you would want to use in their cubesakes, in my opinion. And they're five euros. They're five euros. Yes. So when you get a drink, you they're gonna be in some type of hot drink, hot chocolate, the mold wine that you get, the kinder pooch, which is what I drink. Which is what Ashley has, which is the non-alcoholic one. So once you get that, you pay, you like you pay for the drink and then plus the mug, and then you can decide, okay, yes, this mug is really cute. I can, I'm gonna want to keep it, and you keep it, and you won't get your deposit back, or you can hand it back to pretty much most places, it was like pretty much any single stall you can hand it back to, and you'll get your deposit back, which is yeah, usually like four or five Euros, something along those lines.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And then if you're getting another drink, you know, you can just you'll hand your mug back to them and they'll either refill it or they'll give you a new one. Um, and then you don't pay the deposit again. So you just pay the deposit once. Um but I would say the other thing to know is a lot of the the markets were interesting because some of them were like we don't, we only do card.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So some of them were only card, and then a lot of them were only cash. And yeah, you need cash. So definitely make a plan for that. And and Emily and don't spend an extra$50. Yeah, we could talk about that when we get to the Salzburg episode, but Emily did not believe me about the ATMs. Anyway, um, but you do need some cash. Um, I don't recommend getting Euros before you go. Like if in the getting them in the US, you're gonna pay way more. The cheapest way for you to get Euros is to take your debit card, go to an ATM. I like using the most of the markets have ATMs in them. I think the fees are a little bit higher. I like just to find a bank, just whatever bank, and your bank in the US will give you the best exchange rate. It'll give you like the exchange rate that day. So you're gonna get the best exchange rate and just take out a couple hundred bucks that way. Um, and that's I mean, I think I only needed cash once. And I don't think the markets are that expensive. If you're looking to fly in business class for the price of economy, you can join my free email list by clicking the link below or visiting AshleyKitsaround.com. You know, most drinks were like five bucks, five euros. Yeah. Um, well, the alcoholic stuff was more expensive. I kept buying three dollar drinks because I was drinking the kids' drinks. So I was like, this is cheap.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We even the food I thought, I thought everything pretty much was quite reasonable. Everything that we bought.
SPEAKER_01:It was definitely more expensive in Vienna than Prague for sure. Um, but I didn't think Vienna was that expensive, honestly. I thought it was it was fine. And also it's something you're doing once. Like, how many times am I eating? Also, Emily and I split that's the other thing to know. You guys, we split a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and so a lot of things that you're gonna want to try. And if you I do have a full itinerary, if you go to any one of my posts, I I posted about Vienna. If you just comment Vienna, you will get sent our itinerary that we used. And then there's also like food recommendations, there's photo spots. Of course, Chat GPT helped me with it, but I was I was going on with this the whole time.
SPEAKER_01:Emily's giving the most. I'm like, message me and I'll tell you not to say the writs. That'll that's my recommendation.
SPEAKER_00:I have cafes on there to go to that look really pretty. And we went to a beautiful uh cafe at the Hotel Imperial, which was really gorgeous. Um, but yeah, there's so many different foods that you're gonna want to try, drinks you want to try. I mean, there's obviously just like the classic mold wine, but there's red, white. They have uh like mold Lilae, and that is the one thing I will drink. That's the one thing I will drink. Ashley was excited about that. So there are different kinds of like drinks as well, but definitely like the food you want to keep track and try as much as you can. Because again, if you're especially if you're going with someone, it's really fun to just like get a bunch of things and split them so that you can try all the delicious food. That's probably like that's was definitely my top reason for going. Maybe yours is like shopping. There's gonna be different markets that you're gonna want to go to for shopping. I feel like some of the smaller ones are really nice for that because you can have you know conversations with the people that are running the booths and you know, be able to leisurely stroll and shop when it's you're not like trying to squeeze your way in to like look at an ornament or something along those lines, which some of the bigger ones you will have to do that.
SPEAKER_01:But there's yeah, I mean, the main thing that I bought, which this is gonna be so niche, you guys, but the snow globe was invented in Vienna. And I don't know how I actually found that out. I think it was an Instagram reel because I was starting to get so many reels about Vienna, and I saw that the original, and at first I was like, oh, this is made up, like this is just a story to smell snow globes. No, this like this is where they were invented. And so at a handful, I saw them in a couple markets. So we saw them at the main market. I saw them at the I ended up buying mine at Belvedere. Um, and I was like, I have to have one of these original snow globes. And um, oh, I don't know if I told you this. A lot of people don't know this, but you cannot take snow globes in your carry-on luggage. Um, if they're the really tiny ones you can, but any of the normal size, especially the bigger ones, I just got a I would say I got like a normal size, like a baseball size one. And you're not supposed to be able to take them. I forgot this and I took them through three airports. I got stopped in when we left Prague. I got stopped again when we were in Frankfurt. Now they didn't take it, thank God. And they didn't even pull it out. So I didn't even realize what it was until we got to the lounge and I was like, oh my gosh, it has to be the snow globe. Like that's why I got stopped. And then funny enough, I was supposed to put it in my checked bag when I landed in the US. I didn't. Somehow TSA didn't even stop me in pre-check. So, but you're not technically supposed, they will take them. So you don't want to buy this like beautiful snow globe and then have TSA take it. So that does need to go in your checked luggage, but I got the cutest little polar bear on red skis. It's sitting on my desk. So it's really adorable. So that was the one thing I had to have was the snow globe. Um, I did less shopping than I thought, actually. I ended up just mostly eating, but they're just the markets are just so pretty. Yeah. Like they're just so pretty. And Vienna just goes all out for these markets. And there's such different vibes. Yeah. So, like the bigger markets, you know, obviously like the lights, like the main market was just really beautiful with the the carousel that I wanted to ride that we didn't ride because everybody we were with a couple people and they made us feel shamed that we would spend seven euros to ride a carousel. And I still regret it that I didn't ride this carousel because it was like a two-level carousel, and it was like antique, and it was so pretty. And I was like, I want on the carousel. Um also, you guys, carousels in Europe, you see them in a lot of the cities. Um, and there's nothing fun. There's nothing like I remember I rode the one in Florence with my friends. We all had like two glasses of wine. A carousel is a good use of your five euros. I'm just saying. Like it's a fun.
SPEAKER_00:I think so too. I went to one in Paris, they have a really beautiful two level one. Paris as well. Yeah, it's just it's just a good time. I agree. Bring it out.
SPEAKER_01:I like it. I'm like, I like a carousel. So um, but yeah, definitely bring cash. Um, definitely have tap like cards that are tap, um, because some markets only take card. Um, if you can try to get some smaller bills, um, because sometimes the ATMs like do that at your hotel so if they'll exchange, you know, the 50 euros down for some tens because you might get some looks if you're trying to pay for a$5 drink with a$50, 50 euro bill. Um and then what else? Should we talk about clothing? I packed like we were going to Antarctica. I didn't pack cute enough. Oh, yeah. I felt like I just I well, okay. So I ended up checking a bag, which was which I did need to check the bag because I did bring 27 mugs home, so I did need to check the bag. But I didn't wear most of the stuff I brought. So what I ended up wearing was obviously my down jacket. I got a I ordered a new Lanzan down jacket. I think Emily had a longer jacket, I had a longer jacket. I think that's the move is the longer, like, you know, at least thigh length jacket. I think that made such a difference when it was cold. And then honestly, like I wore jeans or like Lululemon sweatpants, and I was completely fine.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I pretty much had the same. So I had just like your normal black kind of like puffy jacket that went down to my knees. I had I brought two hats. I brought a black one, a white one, just your normal winter hat with like the cute little palms on the end. And I kind of interchanged those two scarfs. Sometimes I didn't even want the scarf. Like a lot of the times, I don't know if it was just the we got really great weather. Um, little Vienna was the coldest. Vienna was the coldest. It had a little bit of a of a breeze, but I was totally fine. Um, it was more of like my my like face and nose were cold. I never really wore my my gloves, but I was happy that I had them. If like maybe it was like a little bit more breezy and I was holding onto the mug. You definitely do want a pair of gloves or mittens or something when you're holding on to your mug to drink it. Because if you're at the Christmas markets, your hand is probably gonna be out at some point to take photos or eat or drink. So that's really nice to have too. Um, I did for for I was just like wearing a lot of like flowy black pants or like leggings. I don't even think I I don't think I wore my jeans at all. But that's just me. That's just my personality. I don't feel that. Emily doesn't wear it.
SPEAKER_01:I don't even I you rarely wear jeans anyway. Yeah, I really jeans.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So I had like this. What I really actually enjoyed was I had this like um jumpsuit, this black jumpsuit. And so I had this, I put like my cute little sweaters over it. I had this red sweater that I wore over the jumpsuit, and I actually really liked that because it was almost like I had something underneath in case like I did, you know, I took my jacket off and stuff when we were like inside, but sometimes when you have like your pants on and then you have like those like cropped sweaters or things that I wear, like the breeze can go up underneath and you get a little bit chilly. So it was almost like I had like an undershirt on, so that was really nice. And then I pretty much only wore my white sneakers. I'm not sure going back if I would bring some type of boots. I know Ashley really liked her Uggs. I'm kind of going back and forth because my sneakers were comfy. I don't really remember my feet being like cold or anything. It was definitely more of like my face that would get a little bit chilly. Um, but that was a great outfit for me and I was totally happy. I never felt like we had to go inside to like warm up or anything like that. We can definitely spend as much time in the markets as possible, which is really nice because you don't, if you are going during a cold time, like I couldn't even imagine how it would be if it was like really free, like like just very cold and very windy.
SPEAKER_01:Like that would kind of be miserable. Well, and it was funny because when we were looking at the weather for Prague before going, it was saying that Prague was gonna be in the 20s, and then Prague ended up being in the upper 40s, and I ditched the jacket for most of the time we were in Prague. I just wore like a sweatshirt and I was totally, totally fine. Um, but you know, I did pack. There was, I will say when we were in Vienna, that was like the coldest. And I did pack a base layer, like a merino wool base layer, and that plus like a sweatshirt and my coat, I was totally fine. And then my scarf. I just brought one like kind of it wasn't a blanket scarf, it was a little bit bigger of a knitted scarf uh that I got from anthropology. It was like totally comfortable. And then Emily's, it's funny, I don't like hats. Like if you see me wearing a hat, I'm actually freezing. Um, so I did bring a hat. I think I wore, I took it out once and did what wore it for 10 minutes. I'm more that my hands get cold. It's because I'm anemic, but I care more about my hands getting cold. So you'll see Emily not wearing gloves when I'm wearing gloves. Um, but I like my ears covered. I hate when my ears are cold. Yeah. Yeah. Emily likes her ears being covered, whereas I don't really care. So I brought some cheap Target gloves. Those were honestly fine most of the time because you really just want like something covered in your hands. And then the ones that I really liked were I brought a pair of merino wool um REI gloves. Um, and those were great. They were thin, they were warm enough. I never felt cold. And then I did have electric hand warmers, which ended up breaking. I actually need to send those back to Amazon. One of them broke the first day, but I did have them the night we were in um Vienna, and having that was great. So honestly, I don't even necessarily know if I would recommend buying the rechargeable ones. You might just want to buy like a pack of those like instant hand warmers. And honestly, that's what we did for Antarctica. Uh had those like instant hand warmers. And honestly, because I want to take photos with my phone, and yes, the gloves technically were like touch gloves, like they never really work as well as they say. So I'm always pulling my hand out of my gloves to take photos. I feel like just having the hand warmers in your pocket is probably fine because you're also between the hand warmers and the hot drinks, like you're usually okay. And then I went and bought these super cute Sorel boots. Okay. They're going back to Nordstrom. I wore them one time. They were horrible. They were like not comfortable. And we didn't have any wet weather. So obviously that's a caveat. Like you could go somewhere and you actually need waterproof boots. We lucked out there was no rain. It wasn't rainy when we went anywhere. Um, and honestly, this is probably gonna be unpopular. Well, actually, Ugg boots are kind of coming back now, but I listen, you'll have to pry the Ugg boots out of my cold dead hands, okay? Because I love an Ugg boot. I love an Ugg boot. I think they're comfortable. I can walk all around with them. I mean, I think the most, I think the biggest day we had was like 15,000 steps. So it wasn't really, it wasn't even like a Disney day. Or you're getting like 25,000 steps. I mean, we did walk a fair amount. The Ugg boots and sneakers were totally fine. I like I the only time my feet were cold was the first night. And it's because I I don't like socks, you guys. So I wore just some like really thin socks with my sneakers with my brooks, and that was the coldest night we had. And it wasn't even bad. We still were outside for like five hours. I just was like, oh, my feet are kind of cold. Also, I'm anemic. That's probably why my feet were cold. Um, but once I put on the merino wool socks, I was fine. Like I I thought we wore we lived in our sneakers. I I wore sneakers with Ugg boots. I I didn't think I needed any other shoe personally. Um, and I did spray my Ugg boots with the waterproofing stuff um in case it was wet. But like, no, even if it rains a little bit, like you're not walking through puddles. Right. You know, and also if it starts raining, we would have gone back to the hotel. Like nobody wants to be outside the rain. Like, you know, so like realistically, like if it had started raining, we probably would have been in the rain for 15 minutes and then been like, okay, we're getting an Uber back to the hotel. So it wasn't really that bad. Um, but I I did the down jacket that was like, I think yours was thicker than mine. I kind of had a thinner, you know, it was it was rated for 20 degrees. So it was, you know, plenty thick, but it was it was packable. I was completely fine with that. When we got to Pra. Honestly, what I loved is I bought a Lululemon, it's one of the scuba hoodies. It is thick, like she is a little too warm to wear. I love it, but wearing it in Raleigh, it's a little too warm. Um, I wore that with just a bra underneath it the basically the entire time we were in Prague, and I was completely fine. Like it was 40 degrees. I was in like my Ug boots and jeans, and I was great. So I think it really just depends on the weather and it depends the time that you're going. But I just think layers just because you're gonna want to take them off. And then when you go inside, you're gonna get hot. So, like you want to have stuff that you can kind of like take off and on. But honestly, I felt great with I had some Christmas sweaters, I had a athlete, I had an athleta sweater that I like live in. That was perfect. Um, I had a Merino wool sweater, I had a Disney sweatshirt, and then I had a Lululemon sweatshirt. And honestly, those were the four things I wore the entire week. We entire 10 days we were there. I just re-wore the same things.
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SPEAKER_01:So I could have packed carriana only because I basically wore four sweatshirts and two pairs of pants.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I was definitely the same too. I definitely re-wore stuff. And that's what that's one thing that I would recommend is like just even if you have one thing that's like very festive, it just makes it up like that much more better. Like you just get like a cute little red hat or a red scarf. Yes, or a fun Christmas sweater. Like, even if it's just one thing, it's just, I don't know. It's just you're you're in like this cute little Christmas bubble and you just want to kind of look the part. And I think if I was, I obviously was packing carry-on, so I could not bring another coat. But if I was packing a check bag, I would probably want to bring like a cute little peacoat. And it totally depends on like how many pictures you're gonna take or what you want to look like. But I feel like Vienna would totally be a vibe in like a cute little peacoat. I just I honestly don't even have one at this moment. I wasn't gonna buy like a full nother peacoat for this trip and I wouldn't have been able to fit it anyway. But just think of those kind of things. But I think even if you don't have that, like you can always just like take your coat off for photos and you can wear your cute little sweater, Christmas sweater, or like have your red, cute little red hat on and also we each we each had hairbows and highly recommended. We did have hair bows, yes with the bows, and it it fits with the there's a big bow in Vienna. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of bows.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, a good you know, if you if you don't want to do your makeup and you're like, I just want a photo from behind, hair bow. Honestly, it's a vibe.
SPEAKER_00:Hair bow, wave your hair a little bit, call it a day. It's lovely. But there's also like very cute cafes and like everything is just so elegant and beautiful in Vienna. So it is fun to like look a little bit more of the part than honestly. I feel like in Salzburg, I totally didn't really care as much of like what I didn't feel like I really needed to look cute or anything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I it kind of went out the Vienna, Vienna. I was like, we need to look cute, we need to be like, I want to take photos, and then the time we die anywhere else, I was like, I'm over, I'm over the photos. It's minus the one market which we will talk, I we're not gonna ruin it. The one market we both like loved in Salzburg, we won't ruin it. But that one I was like, oh no, I we should have come back here just for photos because it was so gorgeous. Yeah. Um, but yeah, Vienna, I just I don't know what it is. If you go in the spring and you're like, this place sucks, go back in November or December because and the other thing to note is they opened these markets before US Thanksgiving, you guys. So there it is a pretty big window of like a good six weeks where you can pick. We ended up going, I think we flew out the 30th of November. We were there the first week in December. I thought it was great. Perfect. Um I think next year I might just spend Thanksgiving in Europe or even go pre-Thanksgiving. I might find the markets that open the 14th and you know, go the week before Thanksgiving. But um all I know is everybody uh shout out to our our friend Lindsay. Um, she's on a she's hosting a Christmas cruise uh in Europe right now, and they're on their cruise. And I literally am like, we were taught, we almost decided to stay and do the cruise. And we both realized we needed to get home for you know our families and other things going on for Christmas. But I just keep seeing all these posts about everybody being on this Christmas market cruise. And I'm like, I'm so sad because this was so fun. And Emily and I, we literally for the past three years had planned to do Christmas markets and like the first year we ended up doing nomad cruise. Last year we went to um Kenya for the safari, and then now we did the Christmas cruise or Christmas markets, and now I understand why people are obsessed with them because I'm I'm obsessed. I'm like, what count down to Christmas? Like you would think that I work at Hallmark channel. Like I'm just like, when are we going back? What what which ones can I do next year? Like, this is gonna be an annual trip for me for sure. And I feel like it's gonna be hard to live up to Vienna, which is crazy. I thought I would hate it, but I loved it. And so it's it's it's funny how that. Um, but yeah, there's so many markets. That's the other thing. Is there so I mean we we went to, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Like you go into a city and in the city, I don't know why I didn't even think about this. You go into a city, and in the city, there is multiple markets in this. Like, I was just, I think I was just so naive before I even did any research or anything where I was like, okay, you go to Vienna and Vienna has the Vienna Christmas market. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You think it's one. No, it's 47. Like so many. But again, I have our itinerary, and I think we hit pretty much all of the best ones.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and to be clear, there are different markets of different sizes, right? So, like the Strombra, I never say that right. Um, the palace is a pretty big market. Um, you definitely could spend a couple hours there. And then there are some markets, like the one we went to that was kind of more local. It was kind of like one little alley. It was probably like 20 stands and like a little area of bars. And that one was super cute. It was literally in like an alley, almost like a little side street. Um, and it just had like a handful of places. Um, and so that one you might go have a drink or a snack. Um, and then obviously like the main Christmas market, which I I mean, you went twice because you went during the day when I was like not feeling well, but and I we only went together once at night. Um, I think that one you probably could have gone to twice. Um, and then there's ones that are like the one in front of the church, um, I thought was amazing. And it was a smaller market, but I wouldn't have minded to go back to that one. I just thought it was really beautiful. But yeah, I think Vienna had like, I want to say over 20 markets because that's why we ended up staying. Because originally we were just gonna do like basically two full days there. And I told Emily, I was like, I think we might need a third full day. And I'm glad we stayed another day because there were markets we didn't even like get to. And like Belvedere was a really cute market that's also at a palace, and so you can kind of like walk around the palace. Um, and then we ended up running into that one market that I love with the guy selling soap, and that was kind of like the medium-sized market. So it's not just one market, it is like the the city goes full out for these markets.
SPEAKER_00:You could just wander around and like stumble upon one. That's why it's it's great. If you have some type of like guidance or itinerary or maybe make a little Google map, it's really nice too. And you might want to decide, okay, like this one's really cute, but doesn't have a ton of lights. Like, maybe that's a good one to go to during the day because they are different experiences going during the day than the nighttime. Like, I feel like nighttime is just so magical and beautiful. And like if it is a market that has a ton of lights, it's really great to see. But then during the day is also like really great if you want like food and lunch and you just kind of like want to drink and hang out, and like it's a lot easier to see things, and like a lot of them open around like 10 or 11, 11 years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so they're not open open super early, which was really good for us because we somehow ended up keeping a very late night. We would we would get back, and it's not because we stayed out late. Yeah, we would get back at the hotel at like nine, but not go to bed till 1 a.m. But it ended up working out perfect because we would get up, kind of have like breakfast at the hotel, and then midday, like head out to the markets. And that's plenty of time. I mean, you it's not like you need seven hours in each of these markets. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:And we did Uber a lot, like we just found it easier. There's two of us, we can split things, but also they have really great public transportation. Like I said, as long as you go and pay, like you can go the app, you can get like a multi-day pass if you want, you can just pay for like one thing. Or it is like if you're in the main area, it can be generally walkable. Like we did walk a lot as well a lot, but there's so there's a lot of different options and ways to to get around. Obviously, some of the ones like Belvedere, like we said, and Sean Brun, and um the other one that I can't remember the name of, it starts with an R. The one in the alley, those are a little bit further away. You would want to take like the tram or something. Tram, whatever they call it. Yeah, or you know, in the house.
SPEAKER_01:Emily has a thing with her other friends, not with me, but with her other friends where if it's under two miles, she walks. So honestly, if you were doing a full day, you know, if you were doing like a Disney level day, you really could walk to a major, maybe not the palace, but you could walk to a majority of these markets within 15, 20 minutes. I mean, honestly, I think there's an on dause. We can talk about we'll talk about hotels in the next episode, but there's actually an on daws right near Belvedere uh palace. And I think that's where I would stay next time. That or the park hyatt, because there's a market literally outside of the park Hyatt. Like literally. And I'm like, oh, this would have been perfect for photos because then you could have looked really cute in your because like I brought tights and a skirt, and I was I ended up not wearing any of that. But I would have if I could have just been like, okay, we're gonna be outside for six minutes to get these photos and go back.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes, right. You you really do have to plan in that way. Like one day when we were in Prague, like I wore like high heels because I just wanted to take like a cute photo. Obviously, I'm not gonna wear friggin' boots with a heel all day, like that's fucking crazy. So it is, it definitely depends. Like it might be a little bit more money to stay in the main areas, but the fact that you could potentially walk to different places, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think I think for the curses markets, especially you're it's cold, it's not the summer, like location is everything. I I would pay more just to be in a better location because I think that makes or breaks it. And also, especially in Prague, it was very busy. Um and so even the Uber, sometimes we were like, okay, it's a 20-minute Uber or a 25-minute walk. And we'd be like, Well, I'm tired of walking, so I guess we're just gonna sit in this Uber because there was just like a lot of traffic because everybody is like at the Christmas markets by like this, you know, and I think we just happen to be there on a weekend night. So that, you know, probably wasn't good either. But definitely like Vienna, I don't know. I I thought I would hate it. I, you know, we like I yeah, it was only because I kept seeing reels of Vienna that I was like, we need to, we need to stop in Vienna, and then it ended up being my favorite. And it's so funny because I thought I I was like, ah, Vienna, whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Like and we met up with our friend uh PJ and she was doing, she called it like the Christmas market tear. And her overall pick, definitely go to her account if you want to know about like she's gone to 35 or something. She went to so many, so many Christmas markets, but her overall was Vienna. So I'm like, well, we are we did it so well our first round, but definitely like Germany is what's new. I think they probably had the oldest original Christmas market. So it is a very perfect place to go. And it's like if you do want to experience like a classic Christmas market, you do want to go like to Germany, go to Cologne and those cute little cities. So definitely on my list. Colmar, Strasbourg, those are definitely on my list still. Um, but Vienna is very, very beautiful and not as crazy as I thought it was going to be. Um, so I was happy about that. All right, so we hope you guys loved this little overview of our Vienna Christmas Markets tour. And our next episode, we are gonna talk a little bit more about hotels, places we stayed, um, tips and tricks we have. Yeah, we kind of snuck out. We were like, oh my god, what's that movie right now? Spy Kids. We were a little bit on. We at that was us. We had our moment. Um, where we well, you guys will uh know what we're talking about in our next episode. So definitely stay tuned and um we'll see you guys next week. If you love this episode, hit the subscribe button and leave us a five star rating and review.
SPEAKER_01:And if you want more of our shenanigans, make sure you follow us both on Instagram. I'm Ashley and Ashley Gets Around, and Emily is at Emily Eats and Explores, and we can't wait to see you next time. Bye!
