What Lies Beneath
A travel philosophy
“Where do you think we are supposed to try them on?” Kathy held up a red, lacy bra, curious about the location of a changing room. We stood in the middle of the Eagle Bridge crowded with pedestrians rushing between downtown, the train, and the bus stations. After six weeks in Bulgaria, Kathy and I escaped from Peace Corps language training for a weekend to explore Sofia. We just passed our “travel language” test and wanted to test out our skills in the big city. We navigated the purchase of train tickets and checked into the hotel with ease. As city girls, Kathy from New York, me from Chicago, and we wanted to wander the streets of the capital to see what Sofia had to offer — especially in the way of window shopping.
We quickly learned the answer to Kathy’s question when we saw a middle-aged woman with red hair trying on a black push-up over her clothes. “I am not sure that is going to be an accurate fit,” I blurted out, and we both break into teenage giggles. We enjoyed being away from the other fifty volunteers and having a little anonymity in a big city.
We found out the grocery stores and restaurants didn’t offer any more variety than where we lived, and the Central Department Store (TsUM) mostly sold large appliances. The sheer number of street vendors astounded us — but not as much as the variety of their stock. We adored…
