From Siberian amber and stylish pashmina shawls from Nepal or Kashmir to unimaginable objects such as a ceramic egg, in which King Solomon lies in bed with the Queen of Sheba, tourist souvenirs are one of the major joys available to travellers around the world. Sunk deep into some kind of identity crisis, Bulgaria has so far been excluded from this pleasure game. Now some initiatives are trying to fill this gap by attempting to pin down what could best represent the post-socialist face of this Balkan country.

Soldiers of the British queen’s guard, in the form of fridge magnets, traditional Dutch clogs made of foam or Eiffel Tower key chains – millions of souvenirs are bought and taken home yearly by travellers, to serve as a reminder of a particular trip and place.

Coming out of a deep post-socialist crisis, Bulgaria seems to remain at a loss about how to participate in this world-wide entertainment. Its ideas to offer joy in the shape of little mementos so far remain locked between an infamous past and an uncreative present.

For over a century, the epitome of the Bulgarian souvenir has been – and remains, the unsightly wooden, pyrographed vial containing rose oil. It was forever immortalised by the infamous Bay Ganyo – the chief character of a series of stories dating from the end of the nineteenth century, who – as a caricature of all the deplorable traits stereotypically assigned to Bulgarians, travelled around Europe and sold the vials.

The rose oil in and of itself could be quite a useful and attractive product. The proof was offered by Carla Soledad Royo-Villanova y Urrestarazu, Spanish-born wife of Prince Kubrat of Bulgaria, with her new cosmetic line, Carla Bulgarian Roses Beauty, sold in Spain. In Bulgaria, however, rose oil continues to be sold to tourists in the unattractive wooden vials.

Apart from them, the Bulgarian souvenir market seems to be deadly stuck. It overflows with offerings of badly-made, unrepresentative, offensive or hopelessly outdated (or any combination thereof) objects. They range from unsightly wooden boxes, primitive imitations of traditional hand-made pottery, somewhat scandalous t-shirts with a map of Bulgaria when it had access to three seas, and, for some unknown reason, Russian matryoshka dolls.

While the depressive communist regime, extinguishing any creativity, may have been the reason behind this (lack of) choice 20 years ago, nowadays there are no more excuses for the poor situation on the local-souvenirs front. Yet, the best local artists were able to come up with so far, are replicas of orthodox icons, and half-glasses, originating from Gabrovo – a region infamous with its people’s proverbial stinginess.

Probably the only original, although somewhat ominous idea, was to sell in the EU headquarters’ shop the so-called ‘Bulgarian umbrellas’ - a reference to the 1978 Bulgarian-secret-service ordered assassination of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, who was stabbed, while walking on a London bridge, with the poison-filled tip of an umbrella.

However, the black humour of this souvenir may be elusive to many, and the negativism of it is hardly what a traveller would want to remember from his stay in Bulgaria.

At the end souvenirs are meant to capture the essence of a place or at least to represent certain aspects of it: its sights, sounds and even smells, its people’s national character and customs. These objects, also called airport art, are not only a material extension of tourists’ desire to capture and remember a place, but also an indication of how a country and its people wish to be seen, and remembered, by foreigners.

To fill the gap, a campaign The Bulgarian Symbols, backed by businesses and state institutions, has been going on in the past couple of years. It aims to identify the symbol(s) that should make up Bulgaria’s modern image. Despite the fact that neither the final results (although they were supposed to be announced in early June) nor the concrete outcome of the campaign are clear, some of the symbols nominated shed light on how Bulgarians wish to be seen by the world.

Preliminary results from mid-April, which sum up the choice of the 200,000 people who voted in the campaign, showed that the Cyrillic alphabet, the medieval Tsarevets Fortress in the town of Veliko Turnovo and the eight-century relief of the Madara Horseman near the town of Shumen are the top three monuments competing in the Cultural Tourism and the Cultural-Historical Heritage categories. Yogurt, which is said to have been invented by the ancient Bulgarians, heads the Food and Drinks category, while the Seven Rila Lakes top the Natural Landmarks section.

Another project, and one that seems to be more likely to yield concrete results, was recently started by the Sariev Gallery in Plovdiv and the non-governmental Foundation for New Culture as an initiative to come up with and eventually mass produce and distribute a new Bulgarian souvenir.

The first stage of the project was launched at the end of May at the Bela Rechka Festival, which BalkanTravellers.com reported on. During two workshop sessions, led by jewellery-designer Tsvetelina Aleksieva and artist and gallery-owner Vesselina Sarieva, participants brainstormed ideas for souvenirs that could respond to the need for contemporary, well-designed and appropriate objects to represent Bulgaria.

“The aim of this first stage is, to evoke, through a series of workshops all over the country, a contemporary vision of the Bulgarian souvenir, to stimulate a creative attitude toward one’s own cultural identity and traditions [and] to invent new patterns,” according to the project’s programme.

During the workshops, an emphasis was placed on creating familiar forms with new materials and vice versa. Different types of souvenirs – including t-shirts, postcards, jewellery and sculptures, were also suggested, with themes covering various aspects of Bulgaria – from a historical point of view, highlighting its recent but largely ignored communist and transition-period past, through its natural and architectural attractions, to cultural peculiarities and customs.

The first stage will be followed by meetings and discussions of more focused groups and experts who will try to develop the initial ideas further. The third stage of the project will involve the actual design, production and distribution of the products to various stores around the country. The time frame for the entire project is envisioned to span for roughly two years.

In the meantime, if you want to take away a souvenir of your trip to Bulgaria, you’ll have to settle for the kitschy, outdated or just plain ugly. Or limit your memories to photographs you’ve taken.

But if you have a brilliant idea (or even just a suggestion) of what would make a good new Bulgarian souvenir, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . And watch this space for regular updates on the project.