Nina descended the stairs of Serdika Metro Station, the pulse of Sofia humming above and below her. The clatter of trains echoed through the tiled corridors, but Nina was listening for something else—the whispers of the past.
She wasn’t here for the commute. She came to Serdika for its hidden layers.
In the heart of the station, between the rush of travelers, stood the exposed ruins of ancient Serdica, a Roman city buried under centuries of dust and progress. Tourists sometimes paused, snapped photos, and moved on. But Nina stayed.
Archaeology had always been her escape—books, lectures, long nights with maps and theories. But lately, it hadn’t been enough. She needed to feel knowledge, not just read it.
She knelt by a segment of weathered stone, her fingers tracing Latin inscriptions barely visible to the eye. A security guard glanced her way but said nothing. Nina had become a regular—a gentle ghost haunting the station’s bones.
“Who were you?” she whispered to the stone. “And what did you leave behind for me to find?”
Suddenly, the noise of the station faded in her ears. The bustle blurred. In her mind’s eye, the ruins rebuilt themselves—columns rising, walls restoring, the scent of incense and wine filling the air. She saw people in togas, heard the murmur of trade, laughter, philosophy.
Serdika wasn’t just a place beneath a station. It was a threshold.
Nina stood slowly. She wasn’t lost in the past. She was walking through it—every visit peeling back another layer. She smiled to herself, a quiet joy flickering in her chest. The search for knowledge wasn’t always in dusty libraries. Sometimes, it thrived beneath your feet.
As a train screeched into the station, Nina turned from the ruins. Her journey didn’t end here. It only deepened.
pleasure of the day:
https://remtalina.com/2025/06/01/the-magic-in-every-bite-ninas-chocolate-banana-escape/
