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 :)

The Norwegian fjords

Our real goal in Norway was to get to one of the fjords. We found a really nice area in Google maps witch is called Aurland and we decided to go there :D It's about half way between Oslo and Bergen(maybe a bit closer to Bergen). It's situated next to one of the branches of Sognefjord, Norway's biggest fjord.

Aurland fjord

It was a bit hard to get out of Oslo, because the hitchhiking place was far from the center. We arrived there late so we had to camp one night close to the road, but we found a really nice and quiet place.
In all of Skandinavia there is law called "every man's right". It says that you can camp anywhere if you are 150 m away from the closest buildnig even if it's a privat property. Though it's polite if you ask the owner to camp on his land. Usually nobody says no and everybody is kind.

Camping

Huge fern in the wild

So after camping we started hitchhiking in the morning and it was quite easy. Once we had to wait a lot(like an hour and a half or more) but we didn't have to wait more than half an hour for the other two rides(yes, it was 3 rides again :P) At last an older truck driver stopped for us who slowed down  wherever we wanted to take pictures and even payed for our dinner.:) It was amazing that these kinds of people exist in the world, who without any expectations help you with whatever it is that you may need.

freezing a bit above 1000m

the longest car tunnel and our angel

The way to Aurland is amazing. Everywhere you see mountains, snow, waterfalls next to the road. We had to cross the longest car tunnel in the world (24,5 km long). we stopped in the middle and stared at it for a while and 20 minutes after that we finally reached our destination.

Aurland

Finding a campingplace was kinda hard because everything around us was privat property and the campingplace costs 200 crowns(about 20 euros:o).. The first day we camped next to a river, but the second day we asked around locals if they know where should we camp. The first women we asked offered us her place next to the fjord.

first camping place

second camping place

We got lucky with the weather cause we had 2 wonderful sunny days and we could discover the beautiful fjord.:) The second day we went to hike on the mountain where you can get an amazing view of the fjord. It was a hard hike, but it's worth it! if you are lazy there is a view point where you can go up by car.:p

Crossing the waterfall

lonley boat

The next days it rained a bit and most of the time it was cloudy but we still enjoyed the whole experiance.We ate wild berries, took long walks next to the fjords. The only bad thing is that I caught a cold and I needed a whole month to recover completely...

click here for more pictures

Anyway we stayed here 5 wonderful days that I will never forget! This was the most amazing thing we've ever done! I can just recommend everybody that before you die you must visit Norway and the beautiful fjords! :)

Visiting Oslo

We spent 3 days in the capital of Norway. Eveybody told us that the city is not that nice and it's a really small capital so our expectations were lower. But what we found was very different from what people had to say about the beautiful capital. :)

The hitchhiking was easy again. As usual it took 3 rides and not a lot of waiting :P The first impression of Oslo was unexpected in a good way. When we entered the city the road followed the fjord and we could see the small islands and green hills in the distance.

Oslo fjord

Walking street with grey clouds

The first day we took a walk. The center has really nice architecture, maybe not as impressive as in Budapest but defenetly not ugly. The walking streets are full of people and street performers. The only bad thing is that there are a lot of beggars everywhere(mostly gypsies) and nobody does anything against it. It's sad. And because begging doesn't work that well they grab an instrument and sing the same 2-3 songs over and over without any passion for 4-7 hours continiously... And this is why more and more people think that buskers are beggars and make busking harder and harder in most of the Europian countries.

Walking street

Port

In Oslo amazingly we didn't saw really horrible performances. Maybe that's why it was one of the best city for busking :P

Anyway when we arrived it was the midsummer festival(23th of June) witch is one of the biggest holidays in Skandinavia(this is the longest day of the year). In Sweden it's bigger than Chiristmas. Everybody's drunk and in the city they are dancing around a huge penis shaped wooden sculpture which is decorated with flowers, and they sing songs about frogs(It's some viking tradition:P). In Norway they build large bonfires.

Bonfire on the water

Water,  Fire and Rainbow

On Sunday we went to the National Museum. On Sunday you can get in free in 4 Museums of Oslo. We were lucky because there was a temporary exibition with Munch and we could see some of his bigest works(like The Scream) and also we saw some Degas, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Auguste Rodin etc.

Monet

Van Gogh looking at The Thinker

There is a Munch Museum where they have the biggest collection of his works. If you like art it's a must visit place in Oslo. Unfortunately we didn't have time and money for that but we were satisfied with what we saw. :)
You can get a good panorama of the city and the Oslo fjord from the Opera House's rooftop. This is the first Opera House where you can walk on the roof top.

Opera House of Oslo

Oslo fjord

Tips on what you can do/see in Oslo:

• walking in the city center and the port
• Visit one of the islands
• Opera House
• Museums (on Sunday some of them are free)
• Botanical Garden

Prices:
The most expensive city we've ever been to. But again if you don't want to eat out you can always find relatively cheap supermarkets. Alcohol and tabaco related products prices are way too high so if you want to drink or you are a smoker you should buy them in Sweden or wherever you come from:p. A lot of Norwegian people go to Sweden just over the border to do their shopping.

Public transport:
We didn't use it cause everything is within walking distance in the center. you can buy ticket for 40 Norwegan crowns(5.4 euro!) But again the conrollers are visible if we are informed right... 

So thats all for now:) Enjoy Oslo and all it has to offer!

Busking in Oslo


After one week in Göteborg we decided to move on and continue our trip in Norway.:) The hitchhicking went really well and after 3 rides we were in Oslo. We spent two days in the small capital, so we didn't play much, but it was one of the best cities we've played till now.

Oslo after rain

We got a little map from a Swedish busker (Jonah Lake) about the best places to play in Oslo, and it's very accurate. So here it is!:

Busking palces in Oslo

We also got tips through couchsurfing on where and when we should play:


" There's a few buskers in Oslo. I personally find the best time to busk is late at night on a Friday or Saturday after midnight on Karl Johan Gate. There seems to be only one good spot though where there are heaps of people walking by and that's next to the Stortinget T-Bane exit and MAX Hamburger place, you can't miss it. There's often another English dude who plays there then with an amp and microphone. There's another english guy, older who plays in day time. I've busked in Oslo once but did pretty well. I think if you play at night on the weekend when there are plenty of drunk people you will be amazed at how much money you can make. Not sure about busking rules in Oslo, but it seems pretty relaxed. There are quite a lot of gypsy style bands and acordions everywhere! "


Our experiance:
It was Great!:) Minimum 200crowns/hour (we made it in 15 minutes)