Flight Attendant Holiday Traditions & The Best Christmas Markets in Europe

In this episode, we’re diving headfirst into the chaos, comfort, and absolute craziness of spending the holidays as flight attendants—and we brought two of our favorite people along for the ride. We’re joined by our friends and fellow crew members, Bre and Caleb, who have somehow managed to turn missed holidays, graveyard-view hotel rooms, and granola-bar “Christmas dinners” into some of the most magical traditions we’ve ever experienced.

Together, we talk about the wild layovers that shaped us, the unexpected friendships that kept us sane, and how creating our own traditions—like our now-annual Christmas market trips—has turned some of the hardest moments of the job into the ones we cherish most. Grab your glühwein, buckle in, and get in the holiday spirit with us.

Want to join us on next year’s Christmas Markets adventure? We’re going to Latvia, Estonian, and Lithuania in 2026! Tap the link below to reserve your spot today: https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/estonia/estonia-with-two-guys-on-a-plane-dec-2026

Episode Highlights: 

[2:01] Caleb’s legendary “baby gun” passenger story
 [4:22] Bri’s unforgettable mid-flight wetsuit moment
 [7:54] How we all randomly met (and re-met) in Budapest
 [9:42] Champagne in coach & the accidental birth of a friendship
 [12:18] Caleb & Rich trauma-bond on a truly awful layover
 [13:44] Holiday layovers from graveyards to granola-bar “dinners”
 [15:21] A senior mama turns Fourth of July into pure magic
 [17:12] The Christmas dinner that wasn’t free… until it wasn’t
 [19:16] How Caleb & Bri started their Christmas market tradition
 [20:55] Why slowing down at holiday markets keeps us coming back
 [23:04] The first market trip we crashed—Drew becomes obsessed
 [25:21] Caleb’s bar-fight scar (and why he earned it)
 [26:55] Keeping traditions alive even as seniority shifts
 [28:29] This year’s destination reveal: Innsbruck, Austria
 [29:58] Why small-town Christmas markets feel like instant community
 [31:31] Tips for junior crew spending holidays away from home
 [33:22] Drew’s go-to holiday hack: pack your favorite dish for a galley feast
 [35:40] BIG announcement: Our 2026

Transcript

Rich: 0:02

Ever wondered what your flight attendants are really talking about behind the galley curtain?

Andrew: 0:06

Welcome to Two guys on a plane. Your go to podcast for an insider look at flight attendant life. We're your hosts, rich

Rich: 0:12

and Drew, and we're here to tell you what really goes on at 35,000

Andrew: 0:16

feet. So sit back, relax. We're ready for takeoff,

Rich: 0:21

whether you are spending your holidays eating a cup of ramen noodles alone in your hotel room, or you are on an airplane getting yelled at by someone because we ran out of chicken, flight attendants and pilots spend holidays doing things a little bit different and celebrating a little bit differently than I would say your normal person does. But fortunately, we are a crafty bunch, and today's episode, we're going to dive into just how crafty we are with making up our own flight attendant traditions when it comes to the holiday season and such. Joining us in the studio today are two of our favorite flight attendants, and they have done an exceptional job of creating their own holiday celebrations, so much that we snuck our way in a couple years ago and have decided we are never letting them celebrate Christmas on their own ever again.

Andrew: 1:11

But we would like to welcome Caleb and Bri to the studio with us today. Thank you so much for joining us.

Unknown: 1:17

Thanks for having us. This is fun.

Rich: 1:19

Thanks for being here. Brie and Kayla,

Caleb Hyatt: 1:21

you were invited, but yeah,

Rich: 1:24

we did. I mean, we only hinted about it a little bit. We were very obvious of dropping hints. But thank you for acknowledging that we were, in fact, invited. It does make us feel like less that we crashed the party and more that we were invited.

Andrew: 1:38

Oh, I thought they meant here today. I was like, they did invite us here today.

Rich: 1:42

Everybody's invited all the time, all the things. So normally, we like to start off our episodes asking our guests what kind of crazy passenger moments and stories you have to share. So Bri Caleb, whoever would like to go first. Do you have any crazy passenger stories or memorable passenger moments you want to share?

Caleb Hyatt: 2:01

Yeah, I got a few.

Andrew: 2:03

If you don't tell us about baby gun, I'm gonna be so mad.

Caleb Hyatt: 2:08

The number one thing, I forgot we were going back to Philly from Florida, as that is. And for some reason, the the number one waved, and I don't like to cross in at first if I'm in the back, so I cross over. And as soon as I do, no, it's not safe, I get into an absolute, like beehive, like a hornet's nest of like yelling. I don't know what's going on, but the flight attendant has the card out for the pilot's bathroom break, and then someone's trying to get up, and I'm like, Okay, no, no, it's fine. They don't understand the rules, so I'm telling them, hey, I can, I can get you back for you, whatever you need. And it's a lady with her baby, and she's just screaming at the one that's screaming at me. And finally, everything gets done. I get the bag down and the lady saying the baby's now puking. So she holds it, holds the chest, and then holds the feet. It's literally the like a gun, and proceeds to let the baby vomit all over the seats, everything and I just at that point, it's like, Is this real life? Like, I don't know what's happening, you know, but that's,

Andrew: 3:32

did you jump back out in the way? Or did she hit you? No, it was

Caleb Hyatt: 3:35

more like a cop gun, like, dripped out. It wasn't like explosive.

Rich: 3:40

Wasn't like one of those sprinklers where it's like, yeah, sprinklers,

Unknown: 3:44

and you'll never cross into first class again. If you can help,

Caleb Hyatt: 3:48

if I can help it, I'm never going back. But the lady did clean up the vomit herself, though, so, I mean, she had to sit back in the seat. Yeah, we're halfway there.

Rich: 3:57

That is a big win. Yeah? Although I wouldn't have either walked away from it all. I had no idea was, yeah, I'm like a sympathetic puker. I If some, even if a baby starts, I'll start.

Unknown: 4:09

Oh, if you hear a gag, yeah, you want to throw up. I want to do it too.

Rich: 4:15

I wouldn't have ended well, and everyone on the plane would be throwing up. Yeah? Okay, Bri. I

Unknown: 4:22

guess for me, it was the lady in the wetsuit. Takes the cake.

Andrew: 4:27

You had a lady in a wetsuit. I did,

Rich: 4:29

which makes sense at 32,000 feet,

Unknown: 4:32

sure. Mind you Well, before we started the flight, Nancy, my sweet Nancy, I was flying with, told me not Nancy. She said, I've been flying this route all month. It's the most boring flight you'll ever have.

Andrew: 4:43

She's not leaving. You're not leaving from a wetsuit destination either. This is probably coming from Fargo.

Unknown: 4:49

We absolutely were over land the whole time. She didn't board in a wetsuit. Mind you, I'm gonna have to hear a story she boards. She's the last one. On through her bag. When I say, threw her bag in the overhead bin, and she starts punching it. And we're like, that worked. It's in. That's fine. Let's just take your seat. We'll go. We're getting ready to take off. Someone rings their call light Nancy makes the announcement. If this is an emergency, hit it again and it gets hit again. So in my mind, someone's having a heart attack, someone's dying. I go up to this lady, and she has a book out. She says, this is the book I'm reading. This is not my book. I don't know how I got this book. And I said, Okay, I'll take it for you. Whatever. We take off. We go to do service. And of course, the card has stopped for me to serve her, and she's now in a wetsuit. Did she go to the bathroom to change? No, don't know. I don't know if she had plans that we were going to land in the water. No idea. But now she's wearing a wetsuit. I don't ask questions because I would you. I mean, at some point you don't engage crazy. You just let it, let it be let it be crazy. This lady throughout the flight, she took all her bags and tried to go to the bathroom because she said, You can't trust anyone these days, and we're thinking we can't trust you. Anyway, she told us she wanted to move seats because she smelled something she didn't know it was poop or chloroform. We said, Okay, you're for security reasons, smell like poop. Anyway, it was the wildest flight I've ever had, and I thought, Nancy, thanks for the jinx. Thank you. Yeah, I'll never forget her. By the time we landed, she was no longer wearing her wetsuit, so I think it was just an in flight wetsuit she had put on. No idea. I hope

Rich: 6:43

you see that like it's normal. I think it was just an in flight wets. I don't know. I've never so

Caleb Hyatt: 6:47

did scuba Steve go back to take it away?

Andrew: 6:50

Is that the comment section, when we post this is gonna be like, Why didn't anyone say anything about the fact that she changed into a wetsuit? Who was watching, who let her change into a wet changed back out, or change out of one, no one, no one's no one is challenging, crazy. I don't

Unknown: 7:04

know what that looked like in the seat. I really don't care. Just get me off this

Rich: 7:07

point, because in this like day and age, questioning that would just lead to more problems, for sure,

Andrew: 7:13

more questions that will never get answered. And sometimes it's easiest just to put your headphones back in and just just enjoy a

Caleb Hyatt: 7:20

movie paid enough for this,

Rich: 7:22

definitely not paid enough now, poor Nancy. Poor Nancy, Well, speaking of crazy stories, the four of us meeting is also kind of a crazy story in its own way. Who wants to start that story? I mean,

Caleb Hyatt: 7:38

we had planned a trip to Budapest. We were so excited and just so happy to see you know how you can tell other crew member Absolutely,

Andrew: 7:48

because that's our version of the story,

Unknown: 7:54

looking at each other like we just knew there were other non reps on the play. Are you cool?

Caleb Hyatt: 8:00

And we ended up heading to Budapest, and then saw you guys on the plane, and then first bar, we went to room where

Unknown: 8:09

they were right there. Like, oh,

Andrew: 8:14

the whole vacation was that way, though. So we met on the airplane. It was one of those, like, I think, did we get first class going or coming home. I don't remember coming home for sure, and I believe we got first class both ways, truthfully, because I think it was one of the No, it wasn't first class both ways, but they had brought us

Rich: 8:30

all like champagne. I remember the back of a seven, six all too well,

Andrew: 8:35

because rich used to pick on me for bringing a cigarette lighter charger on the plane with me. Oh,

Rich: 8:49

we complaining. Andrews, like, I got you.

Andrew: 8:55

So anyways, we definitely were in coach, but the flight attendants, like all knew that we were non revs, and it was one of those crews who, like, brought champagne to coach. And I think it was one of those, like, tip to you for being on the plane kind of things. And then we met in the room bar, but then we ended up, like, just continuing to run into each other throughout the entire vacation.

Unknown: 9:15

I think I feel like it for us. It was like, it's gonna be more awkward if we don't talk to them vacation together at this point, well,

Andrew: 9:24

we shoot a table at that first bar, and kind of got to know each other. You guys were based in a different city at the time. We were based in Philly. Then we were like, Okay, well, this has been fun. Cheers to you all. Enjoy your vacation. But then we kept like, Budapest isn't the largest of cities, so you're, if you go on vacation, you're gonna keep running into

Rich: 9:42

junior tourists, like you're going to a lot of the same spots and the ruin bars and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, it was just inevitable. Funny, because

Caleb Hyatt: 9:50

it was like, consecutive every place, what are you

Unknown: 9:53

doing? Like, where? And come to find out even the places that we don't run into each other, we were there at the same time. We were just doing

Andrew: 10:01

notice, probably chowing down on a long go or something. So yes, that's how we met on vacation, and then we ended up getting a delayed flight and getting upgraded back to Philly, and then we said goodbye, and not that we didn't think we would be friends at the end of all of this, when we had just vacation together, but we weren't based in the same city, so there was no reason for us to, like, ever really run into each other again? We were like, great vacation with you

Rich: 10:26

in Dallas. We live in Philly. We're like, maybe

Caleb Hyatt: 10:29

we'll see one of those situations where you meet someone from the airline and it's like, oh, we had such a good time. Of

Rich: 10:36

course, I'll never see them again.

Unknown: 10:39

Cut two five years later, yeah,

Rich: 10:42

I think did Caleb die? Fun with you first

Unknown: 10:46

my first trip. It was your first trip out of Philly, and it was Paris. It was Paris. We ended up going out on the layover, and a great time we did. But Rich did not remember

Rich: 10:56

me. I'm such a jerk.

Unknown: 10:59

The third glass of champagne under the Eiffel Tower. I'm like, um, we've actually been on vacation together. The funniest

Rich: 11:07

thing, because I remember thinking when I got on the trip, because we had a mutual friend on the trip, Kai. And I remember thinking, I know I know her from somewhere, but like, you know, it's also life. So it's like, did I know her, or did I see someone that looked like her? Who knows? And then I'm just like, oh, well, I have no idea, no recollection of the receipts, if necessary. But I do know he was embarrassed that he didn't remember you because he texted me about it, and he was like, Do you remember? And I was like, Of course I do. And he was confined with her right now, but this was years

Unknown: 11:37

later, five years later,

Rich: 11:39

five years later, yeah. And you were like, well, we do know each other. And funny,

Unknown: 11:45

because it's, it was again, kind of like fate, like, here we are. The universe is forcing us into proximity. For two

Rich: 11:52

have been like, such a good layover and a good trip. And your first trip out of Philly, it was, it was weird. And then two, six months later, I feel like when I flew with Caleb, it wasn't even that far long after I flew with

Andrew: 12:06

Bree, yeah, but awful trip, Caleb and rich did not get such a fantastic layover working some like

Rich: 12:14

no, just three day we went to LA we had to deadhead to West Palm.

Caleb Hyatt: 12:18

We had an eight hour layover, minimum, rests, yeah? And it's like

Unknown: 12:24

the trauma bond I

Caleb Hyatt: 12:27

remember we got to the hotel, and they're like, Okay, your rest starts now. And it's like, we're not

Rich: 12:31

banned in my room yet. Yeah? Oh, that trip is garbage. But no, we it was funny, because the the first I feel like night of that trip was just like chaos and a shitty layover, but, or no, that was we didn't all go to the bar. It was me, you and like another, whoever that girl was, Jess or something, but we ended up at a bar having a beer, and you're like, this is fun, whatever. And then the next day, the trip was just as shitty as the first day, and it was Tampa something, yeah, and I remember thinking, I'm just gonna go down to the bar for one drink. And then I was like, Should I text Caleb? No, that's weird, like you just met, like you're not friends like that. And then I walked down and who's sitting at the bar, and it's Caleb, and I was like, Can I sit with you? And it was very like, okay, clearly the universe wants us to be friends, because they just keep putting all of us in each other's path. So it was really funny, and here we are on another crazy adventure. People don't realize, as crew members, we so often spend the holidays alone and on crazy layovers and whatnot. Do you guys have any crazy holiday layover stories that you can remember, especially like early days of flying when you don't have any control of your schedule whatsoever.

Caleb Hyatt: 14:45

Yeah, mine was like, my family lives in Alabama, and I got a just awful trip to Atlanta by the airport. And I'm thinking, yeah, it's wonderful. I'm thinking, can I rent a car? Can I go see them? But you know, you're so Junior, it's like, if you get stuck, they really instill like, Hey, if you mess up, you're gone, right? Job will not be yours. Yeah? So I was just like, You know what? I'm just gonna suck it up and be in my like, hotel room, be alone, but it's a nice day, and I open the windows and we are next to a graveyard. I just see headstones. It's like, what holiday was this? It was Christmas,

Rich: 15:30

first Christmas on the

Caleb Hyatt: 15:32

headstones, or anything for you, nothing, oh God, literally, we just had a hotel next to a graveyard, which near an airport. You know, sometimes, what a choice.

Rich: 15:46

Who made that decision? And I was like, this

Caleb Hyatt: 15:48

is perfect for her. Well, I don't know. I immediately was like, Well, this is worse. It's like, you want to. It a little bit of optimism, be like, excited, or be like, grateful for your new job, and then you see, like, death, okay, cool,

Rich: 16:10

oh, death. Nothing gives me that warm, tingly Christmas feeling like a graveyard. That's true,

Andrew: 16:17

because the granola bar that they serve you for Christmas dinner is so sad.

Unknown: 16:22

Yeah, I think for me, the first holiday I ever missed. I remember being in the lab. I called my mom, and she's crying, and I may or may not have cried, and she said, It's okay. Bri, this is the only holiday you're ever gonna be away from. Cut to 14 years later, I miss most of them, fine. I mean, you get used to it at a certain point, but I remember one holiday, it was not a Christmas. It was some Fourth of July. It was just like, whatever I'm here, whatever the senior mama comes on and she has gift bags for all of us. Never met this lady. Maybe glow sticks, necklaces, koozies, the whole thing. She may or may not have made jello shots at some point for us on the layover. That layover ended with us going to the park, borrowing a grill from someone that we met at the park, we grilled out hot dogs as a crew watch the fireworks. It was the most magical day that, and it stuck in my head, and I'm like, if this senior mama had not brought the joy in this moment, I think it just would have been another holiday spent doing whatever I don't know. It was wonderful. That's

Rich: 17:40

amazing. Yeah,

Andrew: 17:41

I have one of those. Well, similar. We were in Myrtle Beach for New Year's Eve, because I used to bid different cities, or quote us to different cities for New Year's every year. And we were in Myrtle Beach for New Year's, and we as a crew, went to dinner. And the first officer. It was like, her first trip, so she, like, ran to a party store, grabbed a whole bunch of, like, hats and things, and then we ended up on the beach at like midnight, watching fireworks. It was so fun, so memorable.

Rich: 18:13

I remember one specifically. It was San Diego, and it was a really nice hotel, and when we checked in, they were like, Oh, we're putting on, like, a Christmas dinner for the hotel guests. You should join us. Like, oh, that sounds nice. And we get down there, and we were like, to pay for this, and the flight attendants were already down there. Were like, no, it's free. And we were like, Oh, that's amazing. Like, a free Christmas dinner, like, I feel so cared for and thought of, and whatever. And so we're sitting down talking to the server. They, like, just put plates down. Was like, a preset meal. So they just hand you plates of food. And, I mean, it was good food, but, you know, it was preset. We were like, This is so nice that you guys do this for all the airline crews. And she was like, Well, only southwest, but. And we were like, Oh, it's so true, because we don't work for them. She goes, You guys don't work for Southwest. Yeah, this is before we knew that Southwest is like the golden child, and they get special treatment thanks to their amazing contract. And we were like, Oh, I had no idea. She snatches the plates. She took them away from away from us,

Caleb Hyatt: 19:19

like your finger in it.

Rich: 19:22

And we were like, just sitting there. And we were like, what, really? And she goes, Well, I mean, I can leave them, but we're gonna have to charge you. And we were like, I guess, so you have to eat, yeah, like, it's Christmas, for crying out loud. And like, you tell us there's this meal, and then we're sitting I mean, it was like, the most, like, typical airline situation moment where you're like, I feel so loved and cared for. Oh, wait. So yeah, I think we paid like, $30 a plate or something ridiculous, but it was a magical Christmas nonetheless, it was really good crew, and we still had a good time. But it was definitely one of those moments where I was like, Is this is this the life I want to live? Is this the magic

Andrew: 20:02

it is. Yeah, so we've talked about some of our craziest, like, times away from our family and crazy stories on an overnight but what was it that made you to decide to, like, strike out and make up your own tradition for the holiday?

Unknown: 20:17

Well, I think in the beginning, obviously we could not hold holidays off. So we knew we weren't going to go home to see our family. We we went like when we could, but it was never on the holiday. So we thought, okay, how can we make the best of this? We were broke, so at the time, we decided no gifts. We didn't do gifts. And so we thought, we have to do something to make the holiday season a little more bearable, I guess so. This renowned Grinch,

Caleb Hyatt: 20:55

I understand like, as far as like, I'm not the biggest Chris. Christmas person or gift giver or whatever, but to, like, make a memory and like, go on a little adventure, like all of the Christmas markets in Germany.

Unknown: 21:12

He used to live in Germany, so he had already experienced the magic of the Christmas markets. And so when he kept talking it up to me, I thought, okay, if he feels this way about this, it's got to be something

Rich: 21:26

crunch. Is finding joy, yeah,

Unknown: 21:28

and so we, I mean, we did it, I think maybe our second Christmas, something like that. And it was very not extravagant. It was very cheap because we were so broke, but it was so magical. And I thought, I don't know, this is what it was all about. Just to take a moment to slow down and actually be able to take in the holiday season. It was great. And so since then, we've done it every year,

Caleb Hyatt: 21:57

mostly German Christmas market, our first one to Heidelberg,

Unknown: 22:01

Heidelberg, Heidelberg, which is beautiful.

Caleb Hyatt: 22:05

You got the castles and everything. So

Unknown: 22:09

it was, it must be Christmas market or not. You have a lot on. Well, we're going down the list, yeah. So it was great. And so I think after that first year, we couldn't really imagine the holiday season without even if we went for three nights, like just something quick, just to put ourselves in that spirit.

Caleb Hyatt: 22:33

We even went to Frankfurt and the crew. Yeah, we stayed at the hotel that we wrote

Unknown: 22:42

because it was so last minute. But we thought, we have to do this. So we rode with the crew, stayed at the crew Hotel.

Caleb Hyatt: 22:47

Was like, yeah, if you guys want, just stay with us. Because we told him, it's like, hey, we haven't booked a hotel, right, but you've got nothing. We just, we didn't even think we were going to get on

Unknown: 22:56

this, yeah, so, and that ended up being one of the best ones, because it was just so, yeah,

Rich: 23:01

like Yeah, I love those stories. What are like some of your favorite parts about doing these Christmas market trips? Like, what? What keeps you going back? I

Unknown: 23:11

think one thing is we travel a lot, whether it's layovers or on our days off, and when we travel, well, me anyway, I go, go, go. I have a list, I have things I want to see, and these trips are a little less like that. They're just for the Christmas markets, just to relax, just to take in the spirit, eat the food, drink the drinks, and just really slow down. So for me, I really love it. I

Caleb Hyatt: 23:38

don't know the atmosphere of like, it's not just young people, old people, families. It's everybody. So everyone's hanging out having a good time. And that's yeah, what I like?

Andrew: 23:48

Yeah, I've been on two vacations with them now, non Christmas market and Christmas market, I can attest they truly do stop and just drink the glue. Who are you talking about? These two? We've been to Budapest with them. They were, go, go, go, go. We've been on three

Rich: 24:05

now it was the count that guy, oh God. We

Andrew: 24:07

went on a non Christmas vacation with them. They were, go, go, go, go, go, just like we were. And then we went on a Christmas market vacation with them, and they really did just stop and smell the

Rich: 24:17

blue wine. I think that's what made us like invite ourselves, is we just kept hearing you talk about how it was such a nice way to, like, stop for a moment and enjoy life and just enjoy being away from the hustle and bustle of it all, and like, actually stop and breathe for a minute. And we were like, well, that sounds nice. We don't do that. I don't know how to do that. Well,

Caleb Hyatt: 24:38

you don't have to have an itinerary. Oh, I know. I know, like, one like, The stands are here, yeah? So we're just gonna loop around the city, walk around

Andrew: 24:47

and have a good time, yeah, also, I'm still mad at you for what, for the Christmas market experience. Why? Because I had never been like. I feel like most flight attendants who work for, like, larger legacy carriers bid layovers and like, have experienced, like, the big city Christmas market, so they have, like, an idea of what the Christmas market is. And the first time we joined you, you found this beautiful little city on a lake with swans and two different Christmas markets. And first of all, I'm hooked, and second of all, I'm just ruined, like you can't.

Unknown: 25:23

It was so magical, so magical. I think that year, only thing

Andrew: 25:27

it was missing was snow, but everything else was there. And by the way, we went to Constance. It's this beautiful little town. It's a quick train ride from Zurich. If you're interested, highly recommend, like, 30 out of 10 recommend it. It's really very quiet and cozy, but you ruined me. I'm sorry. I can't, like just go to Zurich.

Unknown: 25:49

My goal is to one up that every year I've gotta so far, almost really cool, almost Nice.

Rich: 25:57

Year one, Wisconsin's year two was on. Yes. Both were magical in their own

Caleb Hyatt: 26:02

way. I have the scars to prove it.

Rich: 26:06

Do you want to tell anyone else about those scars?

Caleb Hyatt: 26:09

Caleb is laughing with Bree. It's like, should I come on here and be like, December 13 if you got arrested for biting someone? That was me.

Rich: 26:22

That was me. I want to say our podcast is far reaching, but I don't know if it's that far.

Caleb Hyatt: 26:28

Just imagine if he does contact, right? He's like, where's my sweater?

Rich: 26:34

Yeah, Caleb got into a slight altercation with man at a bar in Ulm, a rabbit. Rabbit.

Andrew: 26:43

In fairness, he was defending some women that this dude was harassing. So like, Caleb didn't just go up and start swinging on this dude. The dude was it was really drunk and really out of control, and was harassing the staff, bothering some other patrons, and Caleb stepped in to help them to be still. Wears scarf.

Unknown: 27:03

Don't show it. You don't pull your shirt up.

Caleb Hyatt: 27:05

And to be fair, the like the women that he was bothering then all grabbed a limb of his and drug him outside. That was the best part.

Unknown: 27:16

Yeah, it was almost nice, though, because it had the cathedral and then it had the Medieval Market on the other side. My favorite, yeah, that was really unique, because, you know, I

Andrew: 27:27

love a turkey leg,

Unknown: 27:31

yeah, but it was really magical over there, still, even with our seniority now, sometimes hard to feel that holiday spirit. Or, you know, whether you can bid off or not like it, it's still important to keep those traditions that you started from the beginning to kind of solidify, keep you grounded, I guess, through all of the chaos that is holiday travel,

Caleb Hyatt: 27:56

and it's fun, if you like. I don't know I like to share things with people that I like. So, you know, meeting you guys, yeah, hey, this is kind of cool. Do you

Unknown: 28:07

want to do it? It was so nice. And the you say you invited yourself, but to us as flight attendants, we always say, like, Oh, this is so great. We should do this together, that together, and it's very hard to follow through. And so for us, it was like, Yeah, great, y'all can come, please come. And so the fact that you did, I don't know, it was so fantastic.

Rich: 28:29

It's funny. You say that because it's so true. Like, how often do you meet someone that you fly with and you're like, you know, we clicked, and I really felt the vibe, and let's hang out, let's do something. And no one ever follows through that. And then we just kind of kept being like, that, does sound fun? And I I still can't believe it all worked out, because it truly was magical. And not to be too corny, but like, it's how our friendship started. Was with this, like, weird fate moment where, you know, it all worked out, and that was how I feel about the Christmas market situation.

Andrew: 28:58

Also, it's so hard to get four seats anywhere.

Unknown: 29:02

We all keep getting, yeah, really, truly, just me that we should continue this as long as we can seats together.

Caleb Hyatt: 29:11

I'm waiting for the jump seat. I know it's gonna be

Unknown: 29:13

worth it

Andrew: 29:15

three years now, and we haven't. I mean, we've all gotten seats every year three together. We're Caleb Bragg because he's the one that always gets the premium seat. And that always gets the premium seat. It's luck. Where

Rich: 29:29

are we going this year?

Unknown: 29:31

So this year we are going to return to somewhere we have been because we absolutely loved it so much, and we insist on sharing this place with you guys. We're gonna go to Innsbruck, Austria, Austria. You're

Andrew: 29:47

so excited, so excited about this one. Yeah, we hate making people return to places. Oh, no. But you have spoke so highly of this for so long, for so many like anywhere we go. You're comparing it to this one. We're very excited. It was,

Caleb Hyatt: 30:04

I don't know, it was also pre pandemic, into think of, like, the lunacy and like, everything that went on like this. We went down, I don't know if you want to share this. We were at one of the Christmas markets, and these guys were, like, drinking from a bottle, and they're like, hey here. And we were just like, okay, and then, like, you flash forward and like, a pandemic happens. I

Rich: 30:26

mean, pre covid, why not random guy and a Christmas Marc,

Andrew: 30:30

it's post covid. And I still feel like this is a vibe, though, like there's something

Caleb Hyatt: 30:34

about you still drink from community, the

Andrew: 30:36

community, I don't know. Like, maybe it's because we've only been to small towns, but there is a community, yeah, in the like Christmas bars, in the markets that

Unknown: 30:47

Innsbruck is special too, because it has the mountains there, and you can take the gondola up the mountain, and there's a Christmas market up top the

Rich: 30:57

mountain. Yeah, I'm so sold.

Andrew: 30:59

Okay, I'm not going to be able to knock. Every city that you've taken us to, there's been two Christmas markets, though Constance had the one on the lake and the one in the city, there were vastly different vibes and beautiful. Om had the one in the city center, which was so packed because we chose to go on a weekend, I don't recommend live animals there, too. It was weird. So we are very excited to go to Austria this year for Christmas markets. Yes, there'll be a new place for you. It will be Austria. And honestly, I think this will round out like 20 countries for us to 20

Rich: 31:33

countries that we've been new together. Do you guys know how many countries you've been together? No,

Unknown: 31:37

we need to count. That would be interesting. This

Andrew: 31:39

is one of our traditions. We grab a magnet from everywhere, and we really love like looking at our refrigerator to like, is

Rich: 31:45

it like tangible? Yeah, tangible. Where we've been all those memories,

Caleb Hyatt: 31:49

probably close to 20. Yeah, if I had to guess, we're gonna count right now, I'm gonna

Andrew: 31:55

start ordering you magnets when I figure it out, so we can have tangible.

Rich: 31:59

Well, circling back to flight attendant life and being on layovers, especially like when you're junior, and you kind of have to find like, the joy in those moments of, like, it's Christmas and I'm away from family and I'm eating old cheese in the back of an airplane. Like, what do you guys have any advice or words of wisdom or tips or anything that you would give to like new hire flight attendants who were like feeling down about being alone around the holidays or away from family on the holidays.

Caleb Hyatt: 32:32

I don't know if I personally have any advice, but I just I had an experience where these two flight attendants, it was Christmas in I didn't know them. Just flew with them, but they had, like, the whole galley lit up in lights. I was like, okay, so they're making, like, trying to have something, yeah. Then they invited me later in their, like, they went to their one hotel room and took the lights from the galley and made the shape of a Christmas tree gifts with each Oh, that's really sweet. Tricia and Jennifer, I don't know if so. Oh, we

Andrew: 33:08

love you, Tricia and Jennifer, thanks for including Caleb. That was sweet of you.

Caleb Hyatt: 33:13

So, like, that was the one thing where it's like, oh, like, they're making this happen, yeah, right. They're finding they're not just, like, sitting back and being sad, which is easy to do,

Unknown: 33:24

and some years that's all you can do. But I guess my advice would be, be open to an experience on that day, if your crew is lovely, and just be willing to experience whatever opportunities there are. If bring the joy if you can, and if not, just consider it another day just to get through it, because I've had those years as well.

Caleb Hyatt: 33:48

So I do feel like most of our good times with this job is dependent on our crew. Yeah, absolutely.

Rich: 33:55

So is we're always saying that crew make or break the experience. For sure.

Andrew: 33:59

I know I wasn't asked, but I'm going to give a piece of advice. It's pack your favorite holiday food in your lunch bag for that day, and that way everyone can, like, set out what makes food wise, what makes the holiday special to you. So like, if it's pie or cheese ball or salad or turkey, like, have that in your food bag to, like, share with the crew. And I love a galley Christmas or galley Thanksgiving, or something

Unknown: 34:23

like, helps you feel connected to home, or whatever your because you get to

Andrew: 34:27

sit there and like, share about why these things are important to you. And I've had so many like, I've missed so many holidays, and like, learning why this one thing reminds you know, Susan of Christmas or Thanksgiving is is fun because it connects you to the holiday. Yeah, food and

Rich: 34:42

community. I mean, that's what holidays are all about, so it's really important to include those, even when you're away from home, yeah, I just think about all the trips I've had on, like, holiday layovers where they're just, you're kind of like going through the motions. And it's those little moments of, like, someone brought cookies that they made, that they always make around Christmas, and someone shared a story like it's it's always those little community connection moments that keep you from being like, why am I doing this? You know?

Andrew: 35:08

Yeah, it's someone knowing that it was your birthday and bringing you a cake that day, like that. It makes it fun, or finding out that your birthday was on the trip and bringing a cupcake the next day to work to celebrate with you. It makes it worthwhile. We really are family on the road. We really always are, and I have always applauded flight attendants for this. I think we are the most creative people at like, making our life special, because it's, I mean, we've talked about it before. It's so isolating. I mean, you're always with different people, so, like, it's like, you know the people that you're flying with every day, but somehow they make these things feel so special to you. Yeah, and we need each other. Yeah, we do, yeah, cuz we don't always have passengers. Where's my gift card?

Rich: 35:56

Or you have that like one sweet little old lady who brings cookies that she made from home? And you're like, I This is so nice, but I'm never gonna eat these. I'm gonna take them from you, and thank you for your thoughtful gift, but I'm not gonna eat these cookies. They smell like cigarettes.

Andrew: 36:16

Well, you know where we're spending Christmas this year, and by the time you hear this episode, we will hopefully be knee deep in a vat of glue wine or just throwing sausages at each other up a mountain. That sounded bad. So that is 2025 which we have some exciting news for. 2026

Rich: 36:42

Are you ready to tell we are very excited to share with you guys, because we love the magic of Christmas and these Christmas market traditions so much that we want to invite all of you to do the same with us. And we are going to launch a group trip next year for Christmas. 2026 December, 5 through 12th. We are going to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to check out some of the Christmas markets. There a little off the beaten path, going to explore some new places. And we hope you guys will join us. So go to two guys on a plane, comm slash travel, and we have more information about that trip for you. We can't wait to share some glue vine with you and experience the Christmas magic. And I won't throw sausage at

Andrew: 37:20

anyone, but I will share a sausage roll with all of you.

Rich: 37:26

We're gonna enjoy all the traditions. And we can't wait. Yeah, we thought it would be fun. Because, you know, as flight attendants, I feel like we all have been to Christmas markets on layovers in like London, Paris, some of the bigger cities. And we thought this itinerary going to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, we a little different for people and places that we've never experienced before. So we are so excited to go with you guys.

Andrew: 37:48

Yeah, all right, friends, thank you for sharing your Christmas tradition with us. We are so lucky to be a part of it with you, and we count it as one of our traditions now as well, and we hope to continue this forever, we'll find a way to celebrate in 2026 too, I promise. But before we let you go, we like to wrap up each one of these episodes when we have guests with us with a segment we like to call cross checked. It's just a rapid fire questions,

Unknown: 38:16

lightning round. Lightning round. Cue the music you a bolt of lightning, please.

Andrew: 38:29

We are so we'll ask you like 10 Questions. Whoever thinks of an answer first spit it out, and then

Rich: 38:37

it'll be like a little mixture of our cross check game with maybe like the newlywed game. Same thoughts on these things.

Andrew: 38:47

All right. First question, window or aisle? Oh, aisle.

Rich: 38:50

100% no question, Airbus or Boeing?

Unknown: 38:53

Airbus used to be Boeing. How times have changed. She ain't going hotel

Andrew: 39:00

or Airbnb. Oh,

Unknown: 39:03

it depends on the vibe.

Caleb Hyatt: 39:06

Because our experience the Airbnb was great, fantastic choice, plenty of room. It's kind of like living in a little

Unknown: 39:13

Yeah, local feel, yeah,

Rich: 39:17

whatever. Favorite layover

Unknown: 39:19

city, Lisbon, or Paris, I don't

Caleb Hyatt: 39:23

know. Know mines was nice,

Andrew: 39:27

okay, favorite airport,

Buzz Burbank: 39:30

I want to say lately, have you all

Unknown: 39:31

been to Portland, Oregon, they did a renovation. There's live trees in there. It's beautiful. Beautiful.

Andrew: 39:38

Adds Portland to the list. Yes,

Caleb Hyatt: 39:41

Birmingham, Birmingham, yeah, just kidding. They got a couple little places in there. It's not very nice. It's very well redone, yeah,

Rich: 39:53

least favorite airport.

Unknown: 39:55

There's a lot. I got a few. Yeah, Miami, it's one way.

Andrew: 39:59

Yeah, okay, yeah. Go to snack qualifying chomps. I love me a beef

Unknown: 40:14

stick habit. On the podcast a few times the smell of my beef jersey. There's such a good, easy we're out of chomps, protein,

Rich: 40:25

favorite song on your travel playlist, or just what you're listening to right now,

Caleb Hyatt: 40:32

singular song. Oh, you have so many

Unknown: 40:35

Well, my Have you all listened to Olivia Dean's new album? No, no, it's fantastic. I'm hooked on it. She's a new artist for me, but I'm really enjoying it.

Andrew: 40:43

Ads. Playlist, yes, Caleb,

Caleb Hyatt: 40:46

I've been listening to peach pit or minus the bear

Andrew: 40:53

didn't add to playlist

Caleb Hyatt: 40:56

that sounds awful.

Andrew: 40:58

One item that's always in your carry on.

Unknown: 41:01

I think my tennis shoes, because I love to walk on a layover, and so for me, they're always in there, just if the opportunity arises.

Rich: 41:11

Toothbrush, thank God. Sickos, place that you've always wanted to

Unknown: 41:19

visit, one place that was on our bucket list that we tried to go, but it didn't work out yet. Is Norway. I really want to see the Northern Lights. That's big for me. So

Rich: 41:28

that's right, you had that trip that you wanted to do this year, so we'll see. It'll

Unknown: 41:32

it'll happen, but I

Caleb Hyatt: 41:34

don't know. I've been wanting to go to Australia

Unknown: 41:37

since home. Kid that's

Rich: 41:39

really high on our list too. Yeah. Well, we'll have to invite each other on those adventures as well. Well, that's it for today's episode. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. If you liked this episode, please go ahead and share it with a friend and feel free to join us over on Patreon for more behind the scenes content and other exclusive bonuses, go to patreon.com/two guys on a plane. We could not do this podcast without you, so thank you for your support, and we'll see you next time.

Andrew: 42:06

Join us for more humor, heart and stories from our beverage Park.

Rich: 42:10

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Buzz Burbank: 42:27

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