I'm guessing that most people don't have a favorite pharmacy (or two as the case may be) but I do. I've got two favorite pharmacies in Sofia. Or maybe or maybe the word drugstore is more accurate.

Either way, I've got favorites.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Bulgarian Pharmacy on Shishman"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Bulgarian Pharmacy on Shishman" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6132552120/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6179/6132552120_b74942b5eb_b.jpg" alt="Bulgarian Pharmacy on Shishman" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

One pharmacy I can see from my apartment window. I like them because they have the time and temperature attached to their store front <em>and</em> because when I am sick, they give me what I need no matter how questionable my Bulgarian is. Oh and they are <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/06/20/buying-sunscreen-at-the-drugstore/" target="_blank">always really nice to me</a>. Even when we're not exactly on the same page.

So why do I need a second pharmacy?

Tampons.

<!--more-->Let me make it clear that it's a question of selection not availability. The other pharmacy I like is downtown on Shishman Street. It is by far less convenient but they sell tampons with applicators.

And they don't just sell any old tampon. They sell <em>Tampax</em>.

Yes, just to confirm, I'm now writing a blog post about tampons.

Here's why, it's a cultural thing.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Tampax in Bulgaria"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Tampax in Bulgaria" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6132552352/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6085/6132552352_5f687796f8_b.jpg" alt="Tampax in Bulgaria" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

As girls in the States we grow up buying boxes of tampons with applicators as applicator-less tampons are the exception rather than the rule. The boxes of tampons we buy have at least a dozen tampons but more often than not the smallest box has 20 and the largest boxes probably have 48 or 50 tampons if not more.

However tampons in Bulgaria are a different story. Here the applicator-less tampon is king and about half of the tampons on the shelf are scented.  On top of this, tampons come in boxes of 8 or 16.

So what's the big deal?

A tampon, is a tampon, is a tampon. <em>Right?</em>

Well, yes <em>and</em> no.  The American in me avoids at all costs scented tampons and she also wishes that she could buy more than 16 tampons in a box--it's not as if there are extras one month, they will go unused the next month. Then there's the issue of the applicator.

The applicator is clearly just a comfort thing. A tampon with an applicator works just as well as a tampon without. More than anything, it's more a question of what you grew up with and what you are used to. The applicator also gives a sense of cleanliness that's otherwise lacking.  In a country were you've got to BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper) and most toilets are anything but clean, an applicator just makes you feel better about things.

As an expat, I can't count the number of tampon stories that I've heard over the past three years from other women about the lengths they'll go to get tampons with applicators from stuffing boxes of them in luggage, to making guests bring them, to lining up friends and family to mail them from the States. I do wonder what kind of duty you have to pay on boxes of tampons but I've never asked. While boarding the absurd, these stories do make you wonder: how is that we have such a different cultural understanding of tampons in the States versus in Europe? I'd guess that there are a number of different factors and that these include availability post WWII, ideas of health and cleanliness, environmental concerns, marketing and tradition.

So there you have it. If you're looking for tampons in Sofia with applicators, the pharmacy at the corner of Shishman and Ivan Vazov pictured above carries them and they are basically the same price as the applicator-less variety.