Vienna once again

In the end of May we left Hungary again for a new busking tour!!! :) And it started very smoothly with a lot of sunshine, a bit of rain and a lot of fun.

View of Vienna

Change in the law:
The busking law in Vienna didn't change since last year as far as we know. We heard from a busker that actually now it's easier to get the permit . You have to go to an outside district (unfortunately I don't remember which one) and ask there. The bad thing is that the city will give you a list of when and where you can play in a day for 2 hours only. As we heard there are still free spots in the city(they also changed)but we don't know them either...
For more information you you can call this number(I got this number when I went to one of the district offices to ask if I can play without a permit in Karlzpaltz like we did last year. But of course they didn't know the answer and they gave me this number. Hope it helps):
Stadtinformationszentrum: +43 1 525 50
Rathaus, Eingang Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 1 Fahrplanauskunft

at Karlzplatz again

Our Experiance:
We were really really excited when we arrived at Vienna. Whenever we played in this city we always had a great time and the money was also really good. We didn't go to ask for the permit because we just stayed for a week. The busking spots we used are still as good as they were the first time. And amazingly we didn't have any problem with the police.

But a lot of things have changed in a year also because of the new law. The center which was full of buskers, is now quite empty compared to how it used to be. The musicians, streetpainters and performers have dissapeared from Stefansplatz. 
Also we didn't have a lot of competition in our spots (click here, and you can read where we played before). From time to time there was some buskers here and there but really just a few(or we really lucky that nobody played our spots). For us it was more relaxing to play in Vienna because we didn't have to look for a spot for two hours and we didn't really have to wait for others to finish. And the money was really good also.:)

Relaxing in Stadtpark

So the first week of our trip was wonderful. We've played a lot, met with friends and enjoyed the sun when it was out :)

Busking in Amsterdam

We were thinking a lot about whether we should go to Amsterdam or not, cause we heard a lot of storries about police giving big fines or taking instruments away first time without warning, but it's a must see city and we just went there :D

Amsterdam

Laws:
It's quite illegal. You can get a permission and probably the rules are strickt but if you really want to play in the center you're probably gonna need it otherwise the police will fine you. But again we didn't meet any of them so we can't say it for sure.

beautiful channels

we bought some flag stickers and we decorated the guitar :)

Our experiance:
It's a beautiful city. It was so refreshing to see something so different than before. :) We could really apprechiate the channels and the brick houses.:)
We tried out only two places(we were here for 3 days) which were really good. One of them is in a park under a bridge which has good acoustic and we sang there a few times. There was another place close by, where you could play with big chess pieces on the street. So all and all in Amsterdam you can make good money but be careful with the police.

We met a chellist guy, who has played in Amsterdam for years and he told us that he had to go to jail for a few days cause he couldn't pay the fines that he got for playing music on the street. But he lives in Amsterdam, so if you stay just for a few days I don't think so you can get in big trouble.

Me on the bridge :P

Best places:

Busking places for Amsterdam

• Rembrant square (that's the official busking place)
• Vondel Park (we played here)
• Max Euweplein (where the big chessboard is)

So we really enjoyed paying here and being here :)

Busking in Szeged

Yesterday and today we finally tried our luck at busking in Szeged. It wasn't at all bad as we expected since it's a small city. Actually it's, from what we can tell, as good or almost as good as Budapest, given that the average amount we made in the two days was 2000 huf/hour(7 euros). 

Here is the first video that we made. Sorry for the relatively low sound quality but I was a bit far.

This video was made on Kárász street (the main shopping/walking street) in the center. We haven't really tried any other places yet but we might not have enough time to play somewhere else in the City. But I am quite sure if you play in the center somewhere like Dugonics square, Széchenyi square or anywhere in the center you can make the same as we did(depending on what you play,the weather,the people and so on).

We met with some other buskers and they said that for the big squares you don't need a permit but for Kárász utca where we played it's kinda banned, but if you don't annoy old people, nothing bad will happen:P

Valentin on Kárász street

Savane on Kárász street

We will try to busk more these days and try to "paint" a better picture of busking in Szeged.

Szeged

A week ago we finally left Budapest. Now we' re in Szeged and we are preparing for the trip and waiting for better weather so we can leave. We will probably stay here a week and a half more and than we will go straight to Vienna.

I 've spent 18 years of my life in Szeged so I will try to give you the best description i can of the city.:) It's called "the sun city" of Hungary and its situated in the south-east of the country. More information about the city and busking here will come tommorow(10th of march 2012)!

Kárász street

• Szeged, The sun city of Hungary
•  Pictures of Szeged

Budapest

This is the first city that we are going to introduce to you. One of the most beautiful European capital you can find. I've lived here almost 3 years so I decided to write about it before we leave. 

Castle in Budapest

• Click here fore more information about the city! 
• Busking in Budapest 
• Photos of Budapest