To Shanghai and Back – 117 Years Later

“Bulgarian Curiosities” – this is the sign hanging above the Bulgarian pavilion at the Expo. In the foreground, near the kiosk, two dummies dressed in national costumes are propped. On both sides around the entrance there are two old-fashioned window panes with all kinds of old and new coins, postal stamps, maps; inside on display is everything that could be purchased from our country women in the last years – embroidered towels, handkerchiefs, socks, earrings, rings and hundreds of other trinkets peasant women use to adorn themselves. The shed is decorated with rugs on which bagpipes, traditional shepherd’s wooden flutes, mandolins, horns, casters, wooden vessels, prisoners’ purses are freely hanging, while a wax figure is sitting in the back, dressed as a bride, decorated with a whole arsenal of coins and metal jewelry, with limp hair covering her face and a huge halo of boxwood around her head. On both sides of the bride, on the wall, the portraits of the Bulgarian Prince, Prime Minister, and Defense Minister are hung. The pavilion keeper sits behind the cash register and looks with suspicion at the curious visitors