Travel discoveries

Here I was, in the car, heading for one of the small Caucasus villages – Saul Santy.
“You have relatives here?” the driver asked.
“No, no one. I will stay with a woman that rents her house at times.”
“Why such a choice?”
“The region’s identity fascinates me.”
He started telling me about people’s hospitality and local traditions, about one of his sheep that got lost last week, and about his third daughter getting married in September. “It will be a modest wedding. About 600 guests.”
“Modest?”
We stopped in front of the house where I was going to stay. The village had already steeped into twilight.
I came out of the car and was enveloped with fresh frosty air. Mountain contours were hardly noticeable having their tops lost in the darkness.
“The Caucasus stays in one’s heart forever,” the driver said.
The car started. I looked around and saw nothing but small shabby houses that looked as though they were going to fall as soon as someone carelessly banged on the door. Anyway, those tiny cabins were lost among mountains-giants exuding specific coziness and warmth.
I was extending my hand to knock at the door when the mistress of the house opened it. She was an old woman wearing a woolen colorful shawl. Her dark eloquent glance was demonstrating calamity and cold reasonableness.
“Good evening. Come in. How was your way?”
I had a 24 hour train trip, and then a 2 hour car drive. There was little in me – I just smiled and it seemed that she read the answer in my eyes.
“Let’s have dinner.”
I was sat at the table and the woman started to fuss over the food. There was a lamb shashlyk with roasted vegetables, homemade flatbread with cheese... Staring at this variety of food I couldn’t collect my eyes, they were restless. I felt I was at the market as the woman kept bringing dishes. Gosh! There was no way she did it all just for me.
After the meal we drank a cup of tea with local herbs.
“Now it’s time to go to bed.”
I entered my room, filled with the soft light of a candle. On the one side of the room was a bed. I got into the soft cloud of the sheep wool feather-bed and felt the smell of the wool and something of sweet-milk. I was lying down looking at a chest of drawers on the other side of the room. Antique and all carved, it stood out against the rest of the room’s ambience.
Its curves resembled sinuous river gorges going deep into the wooden doors. Shimmering candlelight set those curves in motion. Light waves lashed and I immediately fell asleep.