wanderlust/homesickness

Our driver put the brakes on suddenly, and I woke up from a half-dream. “Zvavi”, he said in Georgian. “Landslide”.
We stopped at the narrow serpentine road halfway from Zugdidi to Mestia. Some huge stones were lying just in front of the bumper.
“Thanks God, we came just some minutes after”. The driver took a long drag on his cigarette and looked at the cloudy sky. “Here, in the mountains, you can rely on God only”.
Waiting for a tow truck, we were standing silently. The mountains of such a fresh shade of green were covered by morning fog; from somewhere deep down I could hear the roaring of Inguri, main river of Svaneti region of Georgia. Here you can feel how tiny you are compared with Mother Nature, I thought.
A couple of hours later we were already on our way to Ushguli, the highest settlement in Europe, or “the balcony of Europe”, how the German journalists called it once. Tired after a long road, I was dreaming just about a bed and energy nap. Nothing could be more attractive for me at that moment.
“Here we are”, the driver said. I went out from the car. Silence was singing in my ears. Old houses with medieval towers among them rested in a small hollow between the mountains. While I was climbing on a hill, the sun finally appeared at the sky, but the mighty mountain Ushba, famous for its double peak, was still humbly hiding in the clouds. Serenity overwhelmed me, and I felt like the settlement, the hill and me on its top were lying on the giant green palms, sunlit, eternal and peaceful.
Then I came down to the village, feeling relieved and perfectly hungry. The only café was closed, but the local people were so kind that they invited me to their house. The owner of one of the oldest towers of Ushguli told me the story of his family as I was eating, played panduri and sang the song in Svan language. My Georgian was enough to express my gratefulness, and the family was so surprised and delighted, that the owner’s wife decided to give me a bit of Svan salt – a mixture of spices, which is produced in this region only, and is very beloved in the other parts of Georgia.
That is the salt of life, I thought on my way back to Mestia: simplicity, kindness and peace. Those important things that are almost forgotten in the rush of city life. Sometimes it is so necessary to leave it all behind at least for some days, just to feel the taste of reality again. Ushguli was definitely a perfect place for that.