The road to getting there though was terrifying. We drove there in a jeep, but I still was thrown from side to side. Every now and then cows would appear and refuse to get out of the way. Sometimes the road would disappear.
And, once we drove right next to a waterfall. The scary road didn't ruin the beauty of the place though.
To try and make conversation, I asked the driver about the Svans, the ethnicity living in Svanetia, where Ushguli was located. The following dialogue did not help make the trip any less terrifying.
"So, what are Svans like?"
"Oh, they're the scariest people."
"How so?"
"Well..." at this the driver looked around warily, as if checking for possible Svans, and added "they take blood."
I began to wonder if we were going to be dealing with vampires, but luckily the driver clarified that Svans often killed in revenge. So, with that in mind, I explored Ushguli very gingerly, but then noticed that everyone had really kind eyes and was super nice. I like Georgia- a country where even the scariest people are kind.
The first place that we went to in Ushguli was the monastery of the Holy Mother - apparently the favorite monastery of President Saakashvili's wife.
It was built in the eleventh century and contained one of the three frescoes in Georgia that had the image of Queen Tamar made during her lifetime.
The monastery was tiny and only had one monk, but it was still imbued with an enormous amount of spirituality.
After the monastery we went to see what Svan furniture would have looked like. The lights didn't work there, so we had a person who followed us around and shone a flashlight on the artifacts. It was pretty awkward, but I still saw some interesting stuff, like a loom and a very fancy chair.
Then, we saw a bunch of signs advertising a museum, so we followed them and opened the door. We walked into an unexpectedly Soviet looking house.
The woman who owned it had made a small museum in her home from all of the antiques she owned and things her husband found from hunting. That is how I got to see the first lamp in Ushguli, as well as an ancient hammer, lots of taxidermied animals and an almost Neolithic knife sharpener. She seemed to really enjoy showing us everything and refused to let us go until we saw every single artifact she owned. She even played a song on a Svan intrument. It was so great seeing someone care so much.
After her we had delicious food and I befriended a dog and I attempted to pet a few piglets, but they didn't want my love. :(
We also rode on a ski lift to see Mestia from above, which was beautiful. There was a lovely cafe at the top which seemed very popular. We relaxed there for a bit and enjoyed the view.
Then we started going down and realized how beautiful and scary that was.
Luckily, we made it safe and were back in the warm guesthouse.
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