If you're walking around Sofia, you'll probably notice a number of Sofians stooping on sidewalks, reaching to their ankles with one hand, holding their backs in pain with the other. It's not a cultural oddity, but merely the legacy of Sofia's first stab at entering the free-market world. Shortly after communism fell, the first store fronts to open were done in a quick, cheap manner--converting empty basements into small stands selling candy bars, banitsa pastries, beer, wine, gum, and newspapers. Called "klek" locally, or "squat shop," these are still all over Sofia--and likely a place you'll need to stop by for a water. Some day they're likely to be replaced on this less masochistic storefronts, which have increasingly been converted from old gray housing blocks into all-glass boutiques and pizza parlors. Long live the klek!