Herbal Tea and Lilly

This was the second time we went to a concert of the Bulgarian group, Lilly of the West. Lilly is a Bulgarian who, along with her band of talented musicians, sings and plays American country and bluegrass music, along with folk music from Bulgaria and other countries. The concert was a matinee performance at the Tea House in central Sofia, and came shortly after the release of the group's new CD, "Lovin' You".

Jodie and I had called ahead and reserved a table, which was good because there weren't too many of them in the small Tea House, which regularly hosts jazz and musical concerts. We ordered steaming hot cups of herbal tea, a perfect antidote to the cold Sofia wind outside, and sat down to enjoy the concert.

Lilly and her band performed songs from the new CD, including "Pennies from heaven" and "Tennessee waltz". Other songs included Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight" and "You Say It Best When You Say Nothing At All," the country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz sung by Ronan Keating in the film "Notting Hill".

Lilly has taught herself to play a fiddle, and this added to the entertaining music played by the group. The entire concert was thoroughly enjoyable and we look forward to the next one!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The “Pogacha”

Image
Pogacha is a traditional, round bread which is used in many Bulgarian ceremonies and celebrations. This was also the name for the celebration that we were invited to by one of my colleagues, Luca, and his wife Iva, in honor of the birth of their son, Nicola. Although the customs surrounding the birth of a baby had their origins many centuries ago, and most of them have not survived, there are still some customs which have made it to modern times and are generally followed by all women after giving birth. When a baby is born, the baby is not taken out of the house for a period of 40 days. During this time, only close family members are allowed to visit and to see the baby. In ancient times, this was due to the fact that a woman was considered “unclean” and as a result, she and her baby were at great risk from evil spirits. Today, it is more of a feeling of protecting the baby from germs and keeping him safe. At the end of the 40 days, there is a celebration, which only the women family
Read more

Top 15 Favorite Bulgarian Places

Image
At a distance of one month, it's sometimes hard to believe that we spent two wonderful years living in Bulgaria. We look back with fond memories at the many places we visited, the many people we met, and the many things we learned about Bulgaria, its culture and history. This started as a Top Ten list, but there were too many places to list, so it became a Top 15 list, and still, some of the colorful destinations we visited are not included. The list is presented in alphabetical order. Balchik . On the Black Sea coast, this town was the summer home of Queen Marie of Romania . We enjoyed walking around the botanical gardens, seeing the old style houses and the simple palace that captured the heart of the Romanian queen. Belogradchik . Belogradchik is a town in northwestern Bulgaria and also the name of a fortress and nature reserve of bizarrely shaped sandstone, limestone and other rock formations. The Belogradchik Rocks were Bulgaria's candidate in the campaign for N
Read more

The Chinese Market

Image
On Sunday we went with our friends Sima and Shlomo to the northern neighborhoods of Sofia to an outdoor shopping bazaar known as the Chinese Market. Stokov Bazaar, or Ilientsi, is a huge area of stalls selling everything from kitchen appliances, toys, clothing, and car parts, and at very cheap prices. Many of the shopkeepers were indeed Chinese, and it was interesting to see so many Orientals in one place, speaking Bulgarian. We managed to buy a few things we needed but it was hard to fully enjoy the experience as it was freezing cold. Either the cold, or the after-Christmas mood kept the crowds away, because we heard that the bazaar attracts many Sofia shoppers.
Read more