First day in Sweden: Malmö

We stopped for one night in Malmö, hoping to make enough money for the bus tickets to Göteborg. Fortunately Tobi drove us to Malmö and we didn't have to hich-hike. The train ticket from Copenhagen would have been extremely expensive for this short distance(more than a 100 crowns!)

Malmö

It's a very small city(actually the 3rd largest city in Sweden by population:P), and we didn't have much time to look around because we stayed just one day and we wanted to make enough money for the bust ticket to Göteborg(125crowns/person).

Musicians on the street

Busking in Malmö

In the center of the city there were not too many people. But we gave it a try and played in the main walking street (I can't recall the name of it but I think you will find it:P ) a bit more than half an hour. A lot of people actually payed and we were happy about it, but than we realized that most of them are payd just one lousy crown:p(1 swedish krown= a bit more than 10 cent), so totally we made 50 crowns...

You can buy a piece of bread for 50 crowns :P

So the next day we had to hichike. Alex our host took us to the highway entrance in the next morning, and that was the point when we both realized that we were in Sweden :))

Busking in Copenhagen

First we were very sceptical about busking, because we saw the huge, noisey streets and we thought that we can't make any money without amplifier. But in the end we still made enough :P

Copenhagen

Laws:

First time we  played on the shopping street an old lady said that it's legal just between 2-5pm. But the next day when we played in this period an annoyed old man came and told us to stop because between 3-4 it's not allowed to busk. So we don't exactly know what is going on, but if you just start playing somewhere the locals will let you know if ou are welcome or not.

Our experiance:

With an amplifier or with a loud instrument can be really good.

Tuning the guitar

The walking streets are really loud so it's hard to play acoustic. But still on Saturday we made in about an hour more than 200 Denish crowns plus some Swedish and Norwegian coins. :) Actually we were confused at the first time. We didn't know that we should be happy or sad. We had no idea how much the crown's value is. And plus in Skandinavia everything is really expensive.

So we assume it's good money here for us and we hope that the other Skandinavian countries will be the same or even better than Copenhagen. :)

The first country we've never been to before:

Denmark

From Lübeck we decided to take the train to Puttgarten where we could cross the Baltic Sea with a huge ferry and get to Denmark. I forgot my sleeping bag on the train (and on the same day I lost my isomatt:() But all and all it was a great day:) We crossed the Baltic sea and the view was amazing from the ferry(cost 11 euros/person).

crossing the Baltic Sea

from the train

From Rodbyhavn we found a ride quite easy to Copenhagen. The city is just beautiful. This is the first time when we realized we are more and more north. At 11pm it was still light in the sky and at night it never got completely dark and at 3am the sky already started getting lighter.

3.30 in the morning

As always the first day was sunny and the rest of the days were rainy, cold and cloudy.:( We have to get used to this wheater 'cause the more north we'll go, the colder it will be. Anyway we enjoyed being here. Beautiful city, chanels, sea and great people.:)

We were really excited all the time because after being in Germany for more than a month  everything was really fresh. We stayed in a boat (Thanks to Tobias:)) with a really good company and every evening we enjoyed the sunset from the boat.:)

Sightseeing in Copenhagen

• Of course you have to have a picture with the little mermaid if You are in Copenhagen:P There are always a lot of tourists taking pictures.
• The chanels are beautiful and full of boats
• Christiania ("the hippi district") is very interesting(altough not what it used to be:P).
• Every Sunday most of the museums are free(unfortunatly we didn't have time to visit any:()
• Get lost in the city! This is the best way to discover Copenhagen

Sunset at 10pm	little mermaid
our shelter in Copenhagen: Tripitaka :)	Main shopping street

You can find photos of all the cities we've been to on our Facebook page. :)

Busking in Lübeck

In the end we stayed in Lübeck for 6 days. :) First we were dissapointed because we couldn't catch a ride even to Fehmarn and we had to stay more than 4 hours in the rain and nobody picked us up, so we decided to go back to the city. Fortunately we met a lot of wonderful people in Lübeck and everything turned out to be great :)

Playing on the street

Laws:

I don't think so that there is a strickt rule in Lübeck. When we first started playing two policeman passed us and they didn't say anything.

Valentin singing

Lübeck :)

Our experiance:

We sang on the main walking street(Breite Strasse) half an hour at around 7-8 o'clock and we made 25euros :) First we doubted that we'll make anything because it was raining and 5-10 people passed by every1-2 minutes but we were desperate to sing. We even got another couch for the next day in Lübeck from a girl(Ulli) who stoped to listen to us and offerd us her place for one night:). In the first days we didn't even try to play because we had money and we thought it's enough for a while but as I wrote before we spent it almost all pretty fast.

The next day we played in the same place for an hour and it was almost as good as before(more than 30 euros) so it was a big suprise for us that this small city is better than most of the capitals and big cities. And the people who we met were all helpful and made our stay a wonderful experiance :)

Thank you Lübeck!

Short stop in Lübeck

Between Hamburg and Kopenhagen we had to stop and we decided to stay in Lübeck for some days. The weather is still crapy and we don't feel like doing a lot of things. But we kinda have to because we 're running out of money. We couldn't believe how much we spent in two days!

Old city center in Lübeck

It's a beautiful small city close to the Baltic sea. Almost untouched by the war (at least not as much as other cities in Germany), so you can find really old buildings and beautiful architecture in the city. But maybe it was a mistake to stop here 'cause it would have been easier just go straight to Copenhagen though it would've been more expensive... Anyway we met nice people and looked a bit around so it wasn't completely wasting our time.:P

Baltic sea: DANGER!:P

green Baltic sea	on the beach
Rich people houses:)	Happy Valentin :)

We went to see the Baltic sea and walked on the beach all day long, so basicly we didn't do much here. Today we tried to play and with 2 songs we made around 6 euros but we had to stop because we wanted to get a ride to Fehmarn, the island that connects Germany and Denmark , but we were unlucky so we will hitchhicke from Lübeck to Fehmarn tomorrow. I hope we'll be lucky enough to get to Copenhagen in a day.

Busking in Hamburg

It was a really great experiance being in this beautiful port city though the weather was against us once again :P Busking was great, one of the best places we've ever played. The only bad thing was that we could play just at night because there was a gypsy playing from the morning till 6 in the afternoon and in the other S-bahn station there was a hobo begging all day long...

Hamburg

Laws:

You don't need a permission for it but you have to change your place every  hour or so but not sure :P In the metro station it's not allowed but if you want you might get a permission to play there but nobody does.

Little crowd in Sternschanze:P

the best S-bahn station :)

Experiance:

Good:) Very good for our kind  of music if you find the right place to busk. Valentin has been here two years ago, so we just played at Sternschanze. The main walking streets(Spitalerstrasse/Mönckebergstrasse) and the port are too crowded and loud for us to play there, but if you have loud enough instrument or an amplifier or your act involves visual atention and not sound than those might be good places. 

If you are acoustic like us, than just go to Sternschanze(in the pictures above) after 18:00 and try it(if you are good enough and have good songs you should be able to make 20-40 euros/hour). There are other guitar players going there after 18:00 so please talk nice and respectfull and you will get the place:). Try your best to avoid sitting in angles where the cameras can see you cause sooner or latter some people will show up to cick you out if you are visible on the cameras:p.

Boat trip:)

Park in Hamburg

Other than that, if you get good weather you will really enjoy Hamburg with its port and beautifull parks and even a beach on the bank of the Elba where you can get by boat, which is a public transport and nobody checks if you have a ticket but if you hapen to have a public transportation ticket the boats are included and recomended:).

Enjoy Hamburg! We certainly did:)

Busking in Berlin

We spent almost two weeks in Berlin and had a bit of rest. The wearher was really beautiful and thanks to our friend, Kristin we got two bikes and we didn't have to spend on tickets. Anyway we spent a lot :P

Laws:

If I uderstood it correctly the only law is that you have to move every hour, 50-100 m and you can play for the whole day. But anyway the police don't bother anybody.

Berlin

Our experiance:

Busking was bad in general. If you want to make some money you have to have an amplifier otherwise nobody can really hear you because of the noise. Even with emplifyer can be hard. We met a guy, who  was playing in front of bars and parks and after he finishes the performance he goes around with a hat to people because that's the only way he can make money. We tried to play in the U-bahn station in Alexanderplatz (with amplifier it's a good place to busk). First time it was really good but after that the guards came and cicked us out every time after 10-20 minutes.

Can you find the musician on the picture?:P

We wanted to play in Mauer park because every sunday there's a flea market where you can make a fortune if you are lucky. But again, without amplifier there's no chance to play anywhere. But it's a really good palce full of people. You should be there in the morning and keep the place for yourself and start playing at around ten or even earlier. There are a lot of musician everywhere and if you arrive late you can't find a good spot.

Happy busker :)

Treptower park

We were dissapointed once again, but in the end we found a place in Treptower park (S-bahn Station) where we could play. Unfortunately during the day there are too many conrollers in the park and they send you away(not all of them), but at night it was really good! We actually forgot that the evenings are always better for us. In Budapest we always played at night. People actually stopped to listen and we got a lot of change, a lot of smiles and some candy too :P

Next time we will know better where to play :)