The day we hung out around New Castle

In Georgian, it’s ახალსითკე “Akhalsitke”, but it translates literally to New Castle, and that was fun to say.

This weekend, Peace Corps let us break free again, in a very controlled way, to see more of what Georgia has to offer. A small group of us chose Akhalsitke, slightly influenced by the fact that our LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator, aka Teacher/Mentor/Assigned Friend) Maka is from that city. It’s south west of where we are training, so onto another marshutka we went. Claire and I did have a spot of trouble actually getting one, and a lot of the apple sellers got invested as we tried to flag one down for an hour, but we finally got one and met up with the rest of the group.

There are G14 and G13 volunteers there, so we called them up and hung out with them for the night. Luckily we hadn’t planned on sightseeing during the evening, because the weather would not have permitted that. There was lightning and hail galore. So instead we got junk food and talked the stormy night away.   It may not sound like much, but it was a really fun evening. Plus it’s fun to get to know the other volunteers.

The next day was an ideal touristy day. Our guesthouse provided a monstrous breakfast and we each took a long, hot shower. (Yes, you’ll probably hear about each time I get a proper shower. It’s a notable event and can turn a frown upside down.) The weather had cleared up and the sun shone on our walk to the “New Castle”, the central feature of Akhalsitke town.

First, we stopped to pay our respects to our favorite King/Queen, Tamar.  She was a no-apologies, rocking queen that they called King. I’m a fan. I’ll need to do a whole blog post just on her. Then it was on to the castle.  Even though the castle itself is relatively new (which is still hundreds of years old, but Georgian history is incredibly long), they also had renovated the castle a few years ago. So it really felt like a new castle.

I guess some of the Georgians refer to it as “Georgian Disneyland”, since it’s so new and touristy, but we didn’t care. It was actually kind of fun to see the castle as it would have been while it was being used. The most interesting part though, was the dissonant architecture. There were the oldest, medieval looking walls, then a church in the center based off the Hagia Sophia, and other miscellaneous influences. They didn’t bother trying to make it all match, and as a result, made a very interesting, beautiful, and unique place.


I am enjoying getting to know all of these awesome places in Georgia. Every little area has such treasures to behold; it’s hard to believe that such a little country can have so much to see and do!