There are many souvenirs shops in Sofia, don’t be afraid you can buy souvenirs even when you leave Sofia, after check in at Sofia airport there are some souvenirs shop.
 |
But if you want to enjoy Bulgarian folk art and crafts I recommend to visit souvenir shop in the Royal Palace (at the same building is National Ethnographic museum).
The shop is at Sofia city center, the address is 2 Alexander Batenberg square. When you climb the stairs, enter Royal Palace and on the right is the door of souvenir shop.
Here you can buy very nice Bulgarian souvenirs.
Bulgarian embroidery - silk and cotton shirts and blouses, children’s blouses and dresses, table clothes, serviettes, handkerchiefs, scarves, albums. I like very much this old style embroudery, I have red table cloth and really enjoy to use it.
Fabrics - carpets from Chiprovci village, rugs, fleecy rugs, tufted rugs, pillows.
Knitting work - cardigans, shawls, socks, sweaters. Sweaters are so warm and useful during the cold winters.
Dolls, wearing national costumes from various Bulgarian regions (in the past every region has its own typical costume). Mummer’s masks and mummer dolls, mural dolls. If you visit the Ethnographic museum, please buy also a ticket for a guide who will tell you interesting stories about the Old Bulgarian clothes.
National Music instruments - shepherd’s pipes (kaval), dvoianka, ocarinas, bagpipes, gadulka, tamboura. I am not sure you can use this souvenirs like real musical instruments, but there are CDs and DVDs at the shop with recorded music, buy one that have examples with all possible Bulgarian instruments, their sound is very specific and differ from anything you have been heard.