Kutaisi’s covered market, the Green Bazaar or Mtsvane Bazari, is where downtown dwellers in Georgia’s third-largest city go for all their grocery needs. It’s also a colourful place that gloriously rewards an hour of a traveller’s time.
If you want to visit–and it’s only a few steps from the Colchis Fountain–it’s worth walking around to Paliashvili Alley and approaching it from the west entrance so that you can appreciate the relief sculpture on the west door.
Inside, you’ll find all the ingredients for a Georgian feast, and much more.
Vendors of similar products cluster together. There’s an aisle of flour vendors, and aisle of potatoes, and aisle of nuts, an aisle of cheese, several aisles of fruit and vegetables, and an aisle of inexpensive and second hand clothing.
I bought some churchkhela here. It keeps well at all temperatures and makes an excellent trail snack.
Outside the market building, I discovered a row of used booksellers’ stalls along Shota Rustaveli Avenue.
After my ramble through the covered market, I stopped in Kutaisi Park to enjoy my first taste of churchkhela. This is a very pleasant public space on a hot afternoon.
Kartvelian Adventures 