Did You See The Alps?? (MY FIRST TIME IN...)

Good morning. Ra boy. [Music] Hey guys, I hope this video finds you well. I'm sitting out here enjoying the great outdoors and I want to start this video off with a little story. There's a great rabbi who passed away only a couple decades ago. His name was Rab Shalam Shvadran. Rabbi Shalom Schwadran and he's a rabbi who spent his time studying, learning, immersed in the ancient texts of the Torah. He was a famous speaker. used to travel the world sharing stories and sharing inspiration with Jews from all stripes and backgrounds. At some point later on in life, he decided to take a trip to see the Alps and his students and the people around him were very surprised. He wasn't a person who was interested in touring or going sightseeing. And for this old great rabbi, it was a shock that he wanted to go and see the Alps. But he went on this trip. He enjoyed it. And at some point, somebody asked him, you know, why are you going to visit the Alps? What's in it for you? And he said, you know, God created this big beautiful world. And he created it for us to enjoy. And he said, "One day my life will end and I'm going to meet God and God's going to say, "Shalom, did you see my Alps?" He hadn't seen the Alps. So this rabbi decided to go and see the Alps so that he could appreciate the beautiful things that God created. Now I'm no great rabbi and I do love to travel the world, something I've been doing for many years, but I never had a chance to see the Alps. Well, actually one time I did see the Alps. I was maybe more than once. I was I've I've seen them from the air. I've flown over the Alps and seen them from the windows of planes, but I never had a chance to be in the Alps. And this summer, an opportunity arose. Somebody reached out to me, friend of mine, and said, you know, we do this tour program. Um, we have a kosher hotel in the Alps, and we'd like for you to come and see it. Full disclosure, they invited us out on the trip. I brought my family along, and we went to see the Alps. So, we flew from the United States and we flew to Zurich, Switzerland. So, I rented a car in Zurich. It was a pretty simple process. drove two hours to St. Anton. >> I think this is the border to Austria >> where this hotel is located and the company that operates this hotel is called Weber. They set up a program where they have kosher delicious meals every single day. And the whole hotel is kosher. So it's all Jewish people enjoying their vacations together. And during the day there's all this free time where you can go out and go on trips and enjoy yourself. So, my wife and I decided that we were going to try to go on trips with the kids every day to spend some quality family time in nature. And we were just blown away. So, we just got to the hotel. Look how picturesque the backup camera is. I'm parking my car. Look how cute this place is. >> We got to the hotel. It was very cute hotel. It's like a ski hotel. Everything's made out of wood. Let me show you one of the rooms. It's a ski hotel, as you can tell. So here you have bathroom closet space. This is the actual bath. Love the goldplated faucets. Possibility for a connecting room over here. This is the bedroom. Very cozy. Here you have little lounging area with a couch that I believe can be turned into a bed. There's another full bathroom here. And check out this view. You can see the stream right there. It's a waterfall coming down from the mountain into the stream. It's beautiful. But we were blown away by the views. I mean, just you look out the window of the hotel and there's just these beautiful mountains. Many times they're snowcapped. There's a river right outside with rushing water. Wow, the trees, the flowers, it was just incredibly beautiful. And not only that, you didn't even have to wait till you got to the hotel to see this. Like all along the way, the highways, the roads that we traveled on, it was just all unbelievable beauty. >> So that was great. The kids were also I mean well during the drive they were kind of like conked out because of jet lag and everything but when we got to the hotel and the first thing they wanted to do which was surprising because usually when we get to the hotel the kids are like oh let's play a game or watch a video or go to the game room or go swimming. Nope. They wanted to go outside and spend time in nature. So as soon as we got to the hotel after we checked in we went outside and we went on a little walk in the mountains. >> Let me see who can make it up the hill the fastest. >> A horse. A horse. >> Yes. >> Let's see. >> Are you afraid of beers? >> I've never seen my kids so immersed in nature. They were so excited to see animals. >> Come. >> It's like we saw cows ding in their mouth. >> Do you hear the echo? >> Yeah. >> Do you hear the echo? >> Yeah. >> Me, too. >> Look at these cows. >> Yes. Maybe. Maybe this is a Maybe this is um >> no ginormous. [Music] >> Is that a house? >> Yeah, that was you. >> No, that Oh, that was me. >> What? >> That was me. some waterfalls and they were blown away by the mountains. It was a really nice experience. >> Then came dinner and that too was amazing. The chefs that Weber Tours has brought to Austria for this program are incredible. They make really good food and the food was in abundance. [Music] I like croissant with meat inside. >> Every meal is multiple courses. We did not go hungry to say the least. >> So this is the fourth or fifth course. I lost count. This is a Vanishel which I love. I want to eat it soon. I'm just holding a sleeping baby. >> We also enjoyed interacting with many of the other guests which were families and there was even some pretty well-known people like Rabbi Ali Stfansky who does the largest dafoish in the world. He teaches Talmud to tens of thousands of people every day. He was there during that time. Check it out. >> Okay. >> Are you going to say good morning or good evening? How does it work? >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Good morning. This for English says good morning. Hebrews always good evening. Doesn't matter when in hell. >> Can we say it extra loud? Show them that we can read stuff. Do whatever you want. >> But not not so many questions. Our boys, not so many questions. One question per person. >> We tried as much as possible to spend our time wisely and go on trips every day. So for example in the morning after the morning prayers after shakras we'd have breakfast obviously massive breakfast delicious tons of food. So this is the breakfast spread. Good morning. X station [Music] here and pastries and cereal. Then we'd pack up a little lunch to go and then get into the car and head out on the road to some place, some attraction nearby. One day we did alpine sliding. The family is looking for directions, but I found a relic from the past. >> A phone booth. So, it is Thursday. >> Happy. >> A what? >> A bath. >> It's like a bath and a sink. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, you're right. So, anyway, it is Say hi. >> Hi. >> I love you. It is Thursday. It's our second day here in Austria. We're in a town in the mountains called Imt. You can see there there's a hotel called H Isht, which is I guess means like high high place in Isht, something like that. I know this because I'm a native Yiddish speaker and Yiddish is comes from uh the languages that originated here. So, you know, similar to Austrian and German and whatever. I remember that when I was a young child, maybe eight or nine years old, I had a friend and his grandparents lived in Austria and one summer he went to Austria and to visit his grandparents. I think they stayed in Vienna and he came back from the trip and he was telling me about this thing that he did like you get into this cart and you go down the mountain. I later learned that this is called alpine sliding or alpine coasters, something like that. And we're here to do that today. I'm, you know, it's been uh 20 years since I first learned about this, but finally we're getting to do it. And hopefully I get to share the experience with my children as well. Are you excited? >> Yeah. >> How excited are you? >> Very excited. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> You're like closer to missing it. >> Okay. We're getting in the cable cars. >> Go, go, go. >> Here we are. We are rising high above the Alps in this beautiful cable car. >> Wa! Look, >> Mommy, look behind us. >> Look. Up, up, up, up, up. >> Up, up, up, up, up. >> Oh, there it is. Oh, here it is. >> There it is. That is the alid. >> Look, that's the alpine sliding. Look, we're going to go on that. >> Okay. Okay. having fun. Whoa, >> that was an absolute blast. On another day, my family did a ropes course out in the forest somewhere on a mountain top. That was beautiful and a lot of fun. Good afternoon. So, it's our second to last day on the trip. We're on the way to an amusement park with the kids and we've been driving through the mountains here and I just have to show you this incredible scenery. literally just stopped on the side of the road to show this to you. Okay, first of all, look out here. Look at all these hills and the little farms or whatever is going on there. Beautiful. Then look over here. Look how high up we are. And the views we can see. Incredible stuff. Thank you, Hashem. Thank you, Mushki, for coming. Nice that you joined us on this one. You are amazing. You are so brave. Look at you. >> Look at him go. >> Boom. We're just leaving this ropes course place. Check it out. Full rainbow and a double rainbow. There's actually two of them there. One of them is full. Don't be offended if you're offended by rainbows. I'm sorry. On a different day, we took the kids rock climbing. Great job, Savage. >> And there are also just plenty of opportunities to walk around the village. [Music] Appreciate nature. >> Thank you, Hashem. Thank you, Hashem. >> See the animals. [Music] Stay away from the animals. >> I'm sorry, guys. >> It was just a really, really nice experience. [Music] >> She has your your what's it called? Leave that cup. >> Oh, you're filming. >> Yeah, you're filming. >> By the way, if you aren't yet subscribed to my WhatsApp status, stop what you're doing, download the WhatsApp app, and send me a message. The phone number is 929-77-5425. Send me a message. You can follow my travels all around the world. I'm posting on a daily basis. Thousands of people are subscribed. They love it. And you're going to love it, too. Look at my little burrito of a 2-year-old walking around because it's quite chilly here. Oh, crisp mountain air. Unfortunately, a couple days into the trip, I came down with something. I got a little bit sick. You ever wake up in the morning feeling yellow? That's me today. Quite literally, I uh woke up this morning and yesterday morning feeling not good. had a sore throat, a bad headache. My face felt like it was being squeezed. Felt like a sinus infection. I've had them in the past. So, thank God I've been resting and uh eating, which is interesting because today is actually a fast day. Today is the 17th of Tamuz. That's the Hebrew date. And on this date, the walls of Jerusalem were breached. I don't know if it was 1800, 1900, 2,000 years ago. Long time ago. So the walls of Jerusalem were breached and eventually Jerusalem was destroyed. And that is why the Jewish people commemorate this day every year by fasting. So all adults from the age of 12 and on for girls and from the age of 13 and on for boys will fast on this day unless they're not feeling well or they're weak. That's me today, which is interesting cuz I've been fasting for almost 20 years now on all these fast days that we have in the Jewish religion. And I can only remember three occasions when I did not fast on a fast day, including today. Today's the third, I believe. My wife brought food to my hotel room. I'm not eating in public because I don't want to advertise that I'm eating. It's not that I'm afraid of anybody. It's not really anybody's business what I do. However, in Jewish thought and Jewish practice, Jewish teachings, we have this concept that if you're doing something that you technically should not be doing, then you don't advertise it. It's not about hiding it. It's about because other people might not know why you're eating on a fast and they'll think, "Oh, shame just disregards all the laws of the Torah." So, there's an obligation on you to make sure that people don't think you're just doing whatever you want and not following the laws. Again, it's nobody's business, but you try to make it easier for other people who might not understand your circumstances. And that's why I'm doing it in private. Um, but yeah, that's that. Weather is beautiful. And honestly, if I had to be sick and not feel well, I couldn't think of a better place to be. Beautiful crisp mountain air. Nice views, relaxing. There's a stream right outside my hotel room balcony. And the sound is really calming and enjoyable. So this is the small buffet which they set up for the people who are not fasting today cuz there are some meatballs shawarma chicken and rice. Going to take some up to my room. I'm in the elevator taking my food upstairs hidden in the baby stroller because I don't know why I feel like that I have to apologize so many times for this. I guess it's my Jewish guilt which comes built in. It's a built-in feature that I have cuz I'm Jewish. Um, but one thing I just want to make very clear is that according to which is Jewish law, if you're not feeling well, then you're basically required to eat on a fast day. Again, I barely ever make an exception like this, but today is one of those days. And maybe I should stop feeling guilty because I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm doing the right thing. And that stopped us from going out and doing trips every day. So for like 2 or 3 days, we were kind of in the hotel. One of those days was Shabas, which we wouldn't have traveled on anyway. So we would have been in the hotel anyway. So it is Friday, air of Shabas here in St. Anton. I'm Alberg, Austria. It's a long name. We're outside the hotel. Check it out. And there is Toya Mayu. This is the pre-shave food tasting. Let's take a look. It's almost chabas. Let's go inside the hotel. See what's going on. Ladies are lighting candles. Getting near Shabas. Getting near Shabas. >> Just got out of the mikvah. Look at this beautiful setup. But thank God because the hotel had amazing amenities. Even though I wasn't feeling well, I was still having a good time. So, I went to the sauna. Okay, it's less than an hour before Shabas. I came into the sauna room. We're going to get this place steaming up. There we go. Have to take off my clothes and get inside. Give me a minute. And I went to the gym and I went to the pool. Pool with warm water. And here you can see there's added privacy so that it's sneous and modest for people to swim here. And I was able to sit out on my porch and look at the mountains. It was a really nice time even though I wasn't feeling well. Thank God for that. >> Mountain life. Throughout the past 10 years, I've traveled all over the world to dozens and dozens of countries. And people asked me constantly like, "Have you been to Switzerland? Have you been to Austria? Have you seen the Alps?" And my answer was no. It's always a place that I wanted to see, but my focus was traveling to the wild places like Afghanistan and Lebanon and Iraq. And those were the places that really grabbed my attention and made me invest my time and energy over there. However, as I'm getting a little bit more mature, I guess I'm starting to put a lot of value and a lot of time into relaxing, into mental health, into spending time in nature. Wow. The views here are incredible. And doing that with family has become a priority. >> Happy. >> Yeah. Do you know like this? This was my funnest trip ever. You know how >> this was your funnest trip ever? >> Yeah, because it has lots of mountains and we love the mountains. >> You like nature. >> So, I'm still traveling to the crazy places, but I've also started spending more time in relaxing places because it's good for your head, it's good for your heart, it's good for your soul to spend some time in nature and relax. and take it easy. >> You like seeing the beautiful world that Hashem made for us? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Me, too. Me, too. To hear that from a child, it's incredible. You know, there's this saying, all good things come to an end. I like to think that some things don't have to end, especially if they're good. But this trip definitely did end. >> So, it's dinner time, the last night of our trip. >> It's spicy. The meals here are very sophisticated. Look, this is a soup with what does it have in it? eggs, I'm told, and popcorn. Spicy popcorn. >> In other news, for the kids, they're schnitle fries. And every night, I do quality control to make sure that the, you know, they're using the the good ingredients. Mhm. >> Okay. So, that is the tea room. Just heading out. Can you please make a tea? >> I made it to the car. >> Okay. Thanks. Oh, it's ready. Okay. And we are headed to the airport. We got to run because our flight is very very soon. It's been a great time here. Really had a great time. >> And there we go. We are in Likenstein. It's weird, but Europe has like no borders. So, we're in a new country inside of Europe. It's a very small country, one of the smallest in the world. Approximately 39,000 people live here and um yeah, there's some Alps, there's some things to see, but we don't have much time. So, I pulled over on the side of the road here in Likenstein. Um it's a weird country, very, very small, as I mentioned earlier, and I've seen like a couple cars and like a ton of tractors. It's basically like a big farm. That's my feeling because there's literally like just tractors driving the streets and a lot of the vehicles. High percentage are tractors. Look up there. You can see the palace of the royal family or whatever. This is like the most famous landmark in Likerstein. Uh but I don't have time unfortunately to go there today. Hopefully we'll come back a different time and make it happen. Okay. And we are now in Switzerland. We drove through the entire country of Likenstein in about 18 minutes. >> Although I hope that at some point in the future we'll be able to go back to the Alps to spend time again at the hotel managed by Weber Tours. So in case you haven't noticed, this town is very, very clean. And look at the attitude that the locals have towards people who litter. I love this side because it was a really great experience. And if you're looking for a place to go that doesn't break the bank, but also will give you a great time in a great environment with great food, great views, and great relaxation. I highly recommend reaching out to Weber Tours. Tell them Schlomian sent you. I'm going to put a link up here or down there somewhere. I'll put a link somewhere so you guys can contact them and reach out to them and plan your own vacations. Thank you for watching this video and I will be back very soon, God willing, with another travel video. See you soon. God bless you all. Have a great day.