I was planning to go to Mestia by taking the morning marshrutka, checked out from the hostel, and booked a Yandex to reach Kutaisi Bus station, just next to McDonald's. Reached Bus station around 9:30 AM, there was one marshrutka but it was full, the driver asked me If I'm OK to sit on a wooden stool and travel to Mestia, I knew it was a long journey and sitting on a small stool would not be comfortable, but he told me there is only one marshrutka to Mestia, so I paid 40 GEL to the cashier and took the ticket. I saw some people had booked their tickets in advance, probably a day before.

There were a lot of parcels and baggage of other passengers and it looked like it was more than what can be stored in just one marshrutka. So now there was a second marshrutka going to Mestia just behind the first one. Got a window seat, and in a few hours it crossed Zugdidi, stopping for other passengers and parcels in between.

The second leg of the journey was most beautiful as marshrutka started climbing the mountain, you can see clouds hovering over mountain peaks, rivers flowing down, water flowing down from the mountains, crossing the tunnels and mountains covered with green trees.

One of the most beautiful journeys of all my travels, the driver stopped at a restaurant in between. Reached Mestia Bus stand around 3:30 PM, bought some food items from the nearby Spar supermarket, walked to the Irina Lextagi hostel, checked-in. I was very hungry, ate food and drank tea.

After a couple of hours I went outside for a walk, also booked a place in a group tour to Ushguli village for 45 GEL from Central bus station.

Some of the photos that I took that day