9 Days, 9 Countries, 9 Christmas Markets (part 2)

We are traveling to 9 Christmas Markets in 9 countries in 9 days through Europe! Enjoy part 2 (days 4-6) 🎄❤️ Go to our sponsor https://betterhelp.com/kandn for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help! We hope this series brings you Christmas cheer!! 🙂 Part 3 is coming this weekend!!

In case you missed it, watch part 1 here! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg3yUEcJweA

Episode 913 | Filmed December 2023 | Strasbourg, France | Basel, Switzerland | Budapest, Hungary

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Who are Kara and Nate?!
Watch our documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuFv4iF8wgg&t=1s

Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, we got married 2013 and were super “normal.” I was a teacher and Nate started a small printing business from the spare bedroom of our apartment.

We discovered the world of “travel hacking” while planning our honeymoon & became addicted 😉

So after 2 years of obsessively saving $35k and over 2 million miles and points, we sold our cars and apartment and left home January 10, 2016 for a “one year” trip around the world.

Our goal was to see as many places as possible before we ran out of money and went back home to “normal life.” We started this channel to share our experiences with friends and family, but quickly fell in love with living on the road and found a new passion for capturing our travels through video. So we did everything we could to keep going.

4 years later, we achieved our new goal of visiting 100 countries and all 7 continents. We had no plans to slow down, until 2020 forced us to 😉 Which is when we bought a converted van to start exploring our own country for the first time!

After ~2 years of van life, we are back to full time international traveling! And now we are finding the best adventures the world has to offer 🙂

We are incredibly grateful to be able to continue doing something we love every day. 😊🎥🌎 Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our journey!

00:00 9 countries 9 days
01:10 day 4: Strasbourg, France
15:26 day 5: Basel, Switzerland
24:51 day 6: Budapest, Hungary
34:05 our rankings 🙂

Over the next 9 days we are going to be traveling to nine different countries to visit the best Christmas markets in all of Europe why does it always have to be like this nothing has booked yet so this is all subject to change but the current plan is to start here in Brussels

Belgium then head to the Netherlands Germany France Switzerland Austria the Czech Republic Hungary Slovakia at least that was the plan we’ve already completely changed course thanks to Germany’s biggest snowfall in two decades we’ve had some pretty stressful train ride plus a 2hour uber to another country yeah are you okay to

Go to salsburg great I think we’re nailing this travel day but every great adventure comes with a little drama we’re currently 3 days into this adventure and so far we indulged in Belgian fries waffles chocolate and beer in Brussels we survived to the Krampus run in Sal I can’t open stream I’ve never

Experien before and enjoyed the best glue Vine in nurg so join us for episode 2 as we travel to countries four five and six Good morning from nurenberg Germany we are currently on our way to the train station to head to our fourth country in 4 days so how early is too early for the blue line all right we are about to board our first of two trains to strawberg France

And if this train isn’t delayed and we don’t miss our connection it’ll be the first time that’s happened in 4 days who knew visiting Christmas markets could be so stressful this one this one all right this is home’s way home for the next 3 hours these seats are

Massive so obviously we’re trying to enjoy every Market to the fullest which usually means lots of glue Vine and as many of the Local Foods as possible so far most of the local foods are either really greasy and deep fried very fat or very sugary usually all of the above

Somehow so we’re doing our best to eat healthy in between Today’s Breakfast is a banana and a Smithy we’ve added a new challenge to this trip which is in addition to visiting nine countries in 9 days to visit nine Christmas markets we’re also going to watch all nine episodes of The

Office Christmas we’re spending a lot of time on trads we’re just um goal Setters you know stick around to them because we will also choose an office Favorite okay we just had to pause the office because something magnificent has happened I have had thousands of coffees in my life and I think this might be a first it’s not confirmed but it looks as though they’ve put coffee grounds and water in the cup and then the lid is the

Filter I’ve never seen this before definitely did not expect this on a Tree okay we’ve made it to our connecting station 10 minutes late but that means we should still have 9 minutes to catch our next train let’s go it’s so funny if you go to book a ticket on the Train’s website like right at the very top it brags about it’s 97% on time

Rate and we have yet to be on time I don’t know if this is right or not why does it always have to be like this Well turns out our train is 30 minutes delayed I know I just went on and on about trying to be healthy but

Sturg strawberg it looks like storg I shouldn’t want to say it wrong all night it’s happening train travel has been so chaotic that I’ve resorted to not booking our hotel until we’re actually on the train to our final destination so now I’m going to find a

Place to stay in France we’re going to France it’s also very quiet on the street Hotel wine more oh there you are we made it besides our 30 minute delay and the door that just closed on my body this has been our smoothest travel day in a very long time

We’re here in stb we made it to the city that calls itself the capital of Christmas I am looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the height I feel like that’s a pretty bold statement I don’t know if like every everybody calls them that or if they just call themselves

That cuz there’s a big difference friend I’m so Happy this hotel is funky let’s going to find a hotel tour of Europe laundry day what in the world does this mean while I wait for those to finish up let me say a huge thank you to the sponsor of this video Better Health Therapy isn’t something I knew much about my entire life but in recent years so many people that I personally know or

People who I follow online and really respect have all talked about how much they love therapy and I think it’s so cool that we’re normalizing and celebrating taking care of our mental health and making it just as that’s a bit loud isn’t it let’s go to

The other side of the room what I was saying is taking care of your mental health is just as important as taking care of your physical health and I think everyone can benefit from therapy if we’re being honest which is why I’m so excited to help spread the word about

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Be a phone call a video chat or just messaging them whatever is most convenient and if for some reason it’s not working out with a therapist you got matched with no big deal it’s easy and free to switch to someone new so if you if you think you might benefit from

Therapy please consider Better Health if you use our link below you’ll be supporting our Channel and you’ll get 10% off your first month with betterhelp that’s betterhelp.com SLK andn I’m so curious this feeling of excitement the moment we get to a new market is going to wear off like so far

We’ve done this four times and each time I’m like this is the best I thought nberg was crowded but this might be on another level and it’s 30 it’s not even the weekend wow look at this the top of it is literally disappearing into the

Clouds all right we just paid €8 to go up 300 stairs to the top of the cathedral wow look it’s already a great view I thought it would be packed but for some reason all the people down on the street who are wearing the big winter jackets didn’t want to come climb

300 stairs this is amazing 157 1589 160 I am actually getting so dizzy 237 243 wao this is insane I was just reading the oldest part of this Cathedral dates back to the 13th century a little like uneasy just knowing how old of a building we standing On worth it totally worth it working up an appetite for all the yummy French food we’re about to Eat that’s wonder what that’s Like she actually has yet to have any glue Vine speaking of glue Vine uh one blue Vine the red one in this one it’s okay for me thank you in case you missed part one of our Christmas Market Tour series glue Vine is typically the first thing we try when

We get to a new Christmas Market cuz it is a staple and we’ve been comparing each Christmas Market based on their glue Vine the vibe of the overall market and what’s the third food of course oh the food duh maybe most importantly I’m trying white blue Vine for the first

Time regret it yeah cheers is yours different too mhm is it like citrusy like lemony brand does their hot wine very different let got to try it it’s so different I don’t think I’m a fan any wine is great in my book but this is not

What I’m used to and I don’t think I love it this was definitely unexpected I was fully prepared to go M this is France has the best it’s wine France but it’s not wow they didn’t disappoint with the lights no they’ve done a great job of decorating so the tree is actually the

Largest natural decorated tree in all of Europe it is 30 m tall and to put that in perspective the tree that’s in Rockefeller Center is only 80 ft tall so it’s bigger than the most iconic Christmas tree in all the US okay this Market has the most food I’ve seen in

Any other place let’s go see what looks the yummy yeah that that is what I want oh this is it this is your spot it looks so thank you oh my gosh I’m so happy this pasta is called spatu which I believe is a Hungarian pasta but they top it with

Monster cheese which is a local cheese this might be the best thing I’ve ever eaten I’m not just saying that the pasta hold on I need another wow it just has this like g s I don’t even know what that means the best way I know describe it is

Like a really fancy tasting mac and cheese okay Cara hyped a lot of things up but that is actually amazing and now the tree is doing something special everyone’s paused I didn’t know this [Applause] Happened could life be any better right now this is so lovely like we’re in Amsterdam yeah okay this wasn’t even on our list of f to try we’re walking in this amazing neighborhood on this canal with these really cool old looking houses like it’s very villagey feeling

And there was homemade soup on this lady sign and the steam was coming out and we just had to get it honestly to find something that’s not filled with sugar or fried is a treat at this point it’s true it came in the same cup that glue

Vine comes in it’s butternut squash with celery and carrot she topped it with curried coconut cream fried onions and cilantro I feel like I should need to sip it this is so satisfying it’s so cozy and warm Savory so am I going to get M own yes you are okay it looks so Good was it good mhm M so this part of town that we’re in is called Petite France and it’s just a bunch of homes that are from the 16th and 17th century with canals running through them this probably wouldn’t be considered like the Christmas markets of strawberg but I

Think this is my favorite part so far I found my next this stop it he’s making three I thought I was just getting one don’t do that I’m so excited I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m trying to control myself I think these are are the same fried potato things that we had

Yesterday in nurburg except here they put Monster cheese on them like a big slab of monster cheese yeah and they toasted them on the spot we have been looking out for these all night ooh was it oh my God remember earlier not too long ago when I was like this might be

The best thing I’ve ever eaten I changed my answer I think it’s even better than the food yes I think it’s just because they put cheesee on top of everything maybe wow what do I do to deserve this life that we get to live and because

France the bubbles cut the fat it helps with digestion much better than the glue Vine I’m not going to lie it feels weird drinking something cold cheating on glue Vine but it feels so right can I be really honest for a sec I unbuckled my pants this is great we just stay here

All night I love BRS we’ve just stumbled up on another amazing local market the first two that we visited tonight were the biggest and they were great like the Christmas tree the cathedral it was all magnificent but super packed super crowded all kind of had the same food

These little local markets that we found that are just spread out throughout the different neighborhoods and in random squares there’s 12 of them throughout the entire city this is where it’s at this is what is making strawb my favorite Christmas Market so far he said

It I think I agree the food and the wine scene at the more local markets is where it’s at all right we’re closing it down all the markets in town close at 9: I think they just pulled the last Parts FL B out of the oven for me from what I

Understand it’s basically like a French Pizza look how beautiful that is this is definitely going to be the most full of left to Christmas Market after tonight we’re really pushing the stomach space here French food I feel like is really hyped up all over the world we’ve been

To Paris a few times and I enjoyed the food but I liked it just as much as anywhere else we’ve gone this trip has changed my mind the French know how to do food sturg has a lot going on I bet we discovered seven of the 12 markets shall

We did you see what they gave us what the heck welcome to France they gave us a bottle of champagne as a departure gift what in the world and not because we’re anybody special to them just like they were giving it to everybody as they were

Checking out I love all right we’re on our way to the train station to head to Country number five all right we have 12 minutes to find our train wow what’s happening it’s on on the screen is it on time all right theoretically this should be our

Simplest travel day yet it’s the first day where we have no connections our train is only 5 minutes delayed but we should get on the train ride an hour and a half and then arrive in Switzerland before it’s dark outside now this is fancy wow this is

All going so smoothly it’s weird it’s been fun to see how different all the trains are the French train that we got on yesterday to come here was a obviously different than the German trains that we’ve been riding and then this has a totally different feel than the French train yesterday pretty sure

This is the Swiss Train it’s a Christmas miracle we made it to Switzerland before lunchtime and we didn’t Sprint today this is our first time in 5 days not arriving to a country when it’s dark it used to be a fourar our hotel but now it’s only three but enjoy

That wow one thing that’s been fun about this trip is seeing which countries do two separate duvet and which ones do one the duvet are fluffy and fabulous the mattress is pretty hard that’s enough I’m done okay well we were welcome to the Christmas Market by singing moose it smells so

Good let’s get some food welcome to basle basle I’ve heard basil I’ve heard Ball but Google says basle So Beautiful by welome I’m so happy I think out of all of the foods at all of the Christmas markets that Nate told me about on this trip this is what I’ve been looking

Forward to most it’s called H bangle and it is a baguette filled with Swiss cheese they literally just hollowed out the center of a baguette and ladled melted cheese inside hot sorry yes do I even need to say it 10 him absolutely fantastic apparently the stuff has become a staple at Swiss

Christmas markets but this is the original place that is where it all started we had one of these spinning things growing up but I never knew what it was called here they call it a Christmas pyramid but I can’t look at it without thinking of the Christmas Vacation scene with Cousin

Eddie oh it smells spicy yeah smells good glue Vine time cheers cheers new cups new colors good glue Vine spicy none of the four markets that we’ve been to have had the same colored cups uh one of the best mhm I’m extra happy right now because when I think back to our

Other times in Switzerland it’s always been a little hard and stressful just surrounded on all sides by creases so it’s nice to be here doing something fun and cheering also we are celebrating halfway we’re Halfway it’s raining we’re not going to let a little rain slow us down on to dish number two and if you thought we have a lot of cheese in France France has nothing on Switzerland it’s literally PL of cheese so there’s this thing called relet and from what I understand relet is the

Process of taking cheese and melting it onto something and this is apparently the traditional way to eat it so we’ve got some little pickles potatoes little bitty onions and a whole bunch of melt of cheese I think swi to might win in the food category all right if you had to choose

Ret or the baguette filled with cheese you can’t do this to okay in researching what to do in basil besides eat cheese I read that during the summer they do something called Fountain bathing it’s what the internet said Cara seem skeptical I also read that you can drink out of all of

Them I cannot believe you just did that based on how everyone else is looking at me that may or may not have been true when it comes to like anything water or food related that can make Nate sick he’s usually the most skeptical person so for you to just stick your mouth

Under that I mean it’s a thing in Italy it seems reasonable that it’s true here it’s a beautiful tree feel like I’ve been spoiled to all the other trees though I’m like well it’s not 98 ft tall and it doesn’t do a light show somebody’s got to do the hard work

Of being critical and comparing all the different markets this is what I’ve been so excited about what is it a filter Tre I read a line that it’s like a fried apple donut I get all right they told me the traditional way you eat these Donuts

Is with vanilla sauce look at that Steam on a cold winter day I’m not sure it gets any better than that it literally just melts away in your mouth it took me until my second Donuts figure out what was going on here but this is not your

Typical doughnut this is a slice of apple with a fried coating that has sugar and cinnamon on top of it drenched in vanilla sauce it’s basically like a healthy donut honestly it’s not often I see n get this pumped up about food so wait for it just when I thought the

Donuts couldn’t get any better the Bowl’s edible it’s like an ice cream con what the heck mate I honestly don’t know if I can eat anymore are you serious it’s not even dark yet and I’ve already hit my limit so I know it looks like all we’ve

Done for the last 5 days is sit on trains drink lots of glue Vine and eat tons of food and that’s all true but in between we have been aing over 20,000 steps per day I know crazy however today we’ve only gone 11,000 steps because basil only has two little markets so to

Keep our street going we’ve decided that we’re going to walk to a new Country France Germany swier so that’s Germany that’s France and we’re standing in Switzer what oh I feel like we walking Forever This is the spot where Germany France and Switzerland all me we’re in three countries at once according to my tracker we have walked 16,6 steps we haven’t even walked back

Yet 3 2 1 walk back from the border we stumbled upon a completely different Christmas Market we’re on the opposite side of the river from before and this one has a completely different vibe I don’t even feel like we’re in bosil anymore oh hey I want to try let me know okay like I

Was saying this is so different from any market we’ve been to in all of Europe not just in Switzerland all of the Stalls instead of being like your typical like German looking Christmas stall they’re like food trucks they’re all really like young and hip and cool and they’re selling International Foods

I had some Momos from an Indian stall earlier then we had oysters and champagne we’ve pretty much seen oysters and champagne at every market so far and this just felt like the right vibe to finally try it I saw some vegan sausages being sold they have these crazy um what

Do you call them like gondolas on the street where people are eating Pondo inside I mean it’s just really unique and cool and I’m loving it if you’re looking for a traditional Market this definitely isn’t it but after 5 days of very similar experiences this is a really fun Change wow how is it already day six it might look like we’re up super early because of the sunrise but really the sunrise is at 8:05 here in basil this feels so wrong this is our first day of the trip not heading to the train station thank you so

Much so we were hoping to take the overnight train to Country number six but because we’re booking this all last minute and I guess the overnight trains are pretty popular unfortunately that wasn’t available so it was either sit on a train for 14 hours and barely have any

Time to see Budapest or hop on a quick Flight after all our train travel this week all this flying stuff feels very complicated we’re giving a Christmas gift to our flying usually don’t have as many layers when we fly dear passengers good morning and v b is here at Flight 2 budha boing is complete this is as close

As it gets to business class on a budget Airline we have an empty middle seat So it was worth booking this flight just to see the ales covered in snow so one thanks a lot that you choose to fly for us today we wish you a safe on our journey enjoy your time here enjoy your weekend and we are looking forward to

Our an hour and a half later we have made it to Hungry wow carry on is the way to go feels so weird just walking out of the airport now waiting on bags we need to get back into this life what’s the plan I just ordered us a taxi on VA it’s

Apparently Uber is banned are you from Brussels sorry are you from Brussels I mean bu sorry no you sorry it’s been a long six days it’s been a long six days thank You wow this feels nice yes it do on the runway oh the okay home so home a long entrance way bad oh in case you were wondering Hungary has one du day or that’s a Hilton thing because Hilton is an American brand I’m not sure unlike

Yesterday time to do some work and all our Off it’s official episode one is up on YouTube in case you missed the first part of the series it’s worth going back Krampus what that Hur I laughed a lot more editing that than I did living in in real life more importantly work is done and it’s time to Play very excited to see how Budapest Christmas Market stack up against the first five that we’ve been to because there’s a lot of hype built up on the Internet regarding the Budapest Chistmas Market apparently they’ve won best Christmas Market in all of Europe three different years including this one so expectations are very

High wow it is Saturday without a doubt the most people we’ve seen it sorry keep an eye on the gray beanie wow I think coming to the top voted Christmas Market in all of Europe on a Saturday might have been a mistake I think I’ve lost Cara I don’t know where she

Went there she is I didn’t think we would ever find each other again all right we’re holding hands the rest of the night this is crazy I mean I guess it is the best until everyone wants to come here yeah I guess I like the drink I got two different kinds they

Have apple cinnamon white glue Vine and blueberry red cheers this is so fun blueberri is different I going to say blue Vine in Budapest is tied with strawber for the worst we got to be objective right no I Agree survive is one of the big categories for how we’re ranking all the Christmas markets and I have to say Budapest is nailing the vibe so far with these live Christmas spir rollers they’re up on this platform and they’re singing in the microphones and it’s just echoing throughout the whole Market

All right I’m not sure what’s about to happen but the bells are ringing and there’s a countdown on the Basilica something big the carolers have stopped they’re drawing everyone’s attention towards the building so fun I think whether we like it or not this is where we’re standing for whatever’s about to happen

I’m not really having fun anymore I was really embracing the crowd for a while I thought it was kind of fun not even moving at this point we’re literally standing still we’re having a good time I’m getting shoved in all Direction I don’t want to sound

Ungrateful but I feel like if I just picked my feet up I would just still be standing and moving with the crow yes 100% I’m getting flashbacks to Holy in India oh here we go here we go we got some Mo keep the mo people keep going I can breathe

Conak roasting on an open fire how long have we’ve been in line it has been approximately 24 minutes as you can see they can only cook five at a time but sometimes greatness takes time wa wow they call it a chimney cake for a reason I have seen these at every Market

That we’ve been to but I waited to eat it here because they originated in hungry that line was insanely long but it was the only one where the guy was in the back making the dough fresh and they were cooking it over an open fire so

They wrapped the dough around a piece of wood and then they put butter all over it and they roast it over the fire until the butter gets all gooey and then you can choose your topping so I just went with the classic cinnamon wo there’s a

Lot of pressure on that bike pretty good it’s kind of doughy in the middle I didn’t it’s not really cook I don’t know if it’s supposed to be like that 8 out of 10 so that is the largest ice skating rink in all of Europe it’s over 150 years old it was actually destroyed during World War II and built back because it was so important to the city and underneath it is over 130 M of cooling tubes so they can use it over

100 days a year those were all the fun fact that I intended on sharing with you while I was skating but um I closed it down early so just pretend that you saw us gracefully skating doing circles going on one leg I’m a terrible skater okay back to the

Market very happy to report that we are back at the market and there are probably 50% less people than there were before I think we were just here doing R shower and I finally have Hungarian food in my hand this is called Longos if you’ve been following along technically

I had Longos on day two in Austria there they put sauerkraut on but it actually originated here in Hungary and here they put things like sour cream and cheese which is what I got there are onions bacon sausage sometimes they put Nutella on it and it’s basically just a big

Piece of fried dough I’m not sure that you eat it like a taco they call it a Hungarian Taco they don’t they don’t call it that look how big okay here we go obviously it’s a grease Fest T the season I actually read how this dish originated and it’s super interesting

Back in the day it was really expensive to get your oven heated up enough to bake bread so typically they would just do like one big baking day a week but they would bake all their bread and this dish came from kind of those last pieces of stale bread they weren’t very good

Anymore so they would deep fry them put a bunch of stuff on them to make them taste good before the fresh bat was made the next week I don’t know when you know a story behind something it just makes it taste a little better all right that is going to do it

For episode 2 it is now time to rank the markets that we visited in this episode on the three most important factors of every Market being blue Vine food and Vibe I feel like in episode one it was really clear to me like what the winners

Were in each category and this one I’m feeling really torn here we go okay favorite glue Vine basle no questions asked the mug was the best the glue Vine was the best it was the only one with the real mug and it was the only one we

Could glue okay so that one was easy food all right here’s where things are for me it was strawber the food in basil was amazing but I was on day two of like way too much cheese and five five strawford I have to say I felt the happiest the whole time wearing

STW like maybe of the whole trip so far I think strawber is going to be hard to beat I think that’s going down we still have three more to visit but I think that’s going down to the number one Christmas Market I’m just calling it now

Also Budapest I’m sorry that we hit you at the wrong time that is the bad thing about doing these markets really quick is we only have a small window of time to visit and we just happen to be here at not the best time give Budapest a

Chance if you’re coming to the Christmas Market just don’t come at 5:00 p.m. on a Saturday