Salzburg

After a week of rain we had a lot of sun in Salzburg but it didn't mean that the money will be better.

Salzburg

Busking law in Salzburg:
As far as we know it stayed the same.(read it here) So you're not allowed to play on the shopping street(though we saw quite a few people playing there). You need some kind of permission to play in the city. Unfortunately we don't know more details, but apparently the council of Salzburg doesnt't really like street musicians. We met a band from Sweden (they play really good) last year and they told us that they contacted the coucil and asked about the rules via e-mail. In the answer the coucil asked them politely not to come to Salzburg and play on the street.
And this time we saw even less buskers than last year.(most of them quite bad)

Not the best busking place

Our experiance:
When we arrived to Salzburg it was still raining but we thought we should go to the same old place that we found last year, and play there a little bit(it's a little passage). One or two people walked by per minute but we played anyway. After 3 songs we had 7 euros and we thought it might be a good place after all but it was really cold so we went home. We thought wrong.
The next two days we spent in Salzburg were really hot and sunny but the busking was quite bad. In two days we made here as much a in Vienna in a very everage/bad day. Also the shop owners are not that welcoming either.
We sang a bit in the passage the second day and a lady came out from a shop(which was actually quite far) and asked us to leave because other musicians will follow us and play here and than she has to send everybody away. We left but in the late afternoon we went back for half an hour because we didn't have any other option. The next day a little hand written paper was scotch taped on the wall and it said: "no music allowed". So basicly they kicked us out "gently" :P
We sang on the bridge a little but we weren't that succesfull either so the last day after trying to sing an hour and barely made 8 euros, we decided to abort the mission and went home.

Salzburg and the river

The story may sounds bad and depressing but it wasn't that bad for us. We stayed with a friend we made last year, we ate good, and went up to the castle(almost because the entrance was quite expensive "8 euors") and enjoyed the wiev of the city. We hope our luck with busking will take a turn for the better in Innsbruck :)

Busking in Salzburg


We mostly just rested and enjoyed the sun while we were in Salzburg, but of course we tried to play a bit in the center and we think it's a nice place to make money (and other musicians told us the same thing).
I expected more street musicians (especially classical musicians)than I saw, because Mozart's birth-house as well as the house he lived in is in Salzburg so the city has a huge historical backround. But It might be like this because it's not really the "tourist season" yet but still there were a lot of people.

Shopping street in Salzburg

Laws:
You are not allowed to play in the shopping streets but people still play there. We met a guy with a guitar(he sang really good) who told us that he has been playing in Salzburg for some years and usually he plays in illegal places but he never really had big porblems with the police. Of course there are some free places. Like the bridges, Mozartplatz and generaly squares (It's ironic that you're not allowed to play in front of Mozart's birth house :P) and you have to move every hour to another place but that's all.:)

Close to Mozartplatz

Our experiance:
We played a bit on the walking bridge without any luck and the last day we tried to sing in a little passage close to Mozartplatz where we saw a musician playing before(actually it's an illegal place) and we made our usual amount of money(15-20 euros/hour). But we didn't struggel to play more because we had to carry around all our luggages with us. 

Me and our stuff

The conclution:
Salzburg should defenetly be on every buskers/travelers list, just because its one of those small, beautiful cities where you can either chose to sing and probably make good money, or just go and relax for a couple of days if you are tired and happen to be near by.

Salzburg


We left Salzburg some days ago and now we are in Munich and we got a bit of time to update the blog :)

In Salzburg we mostly chilled a bit and enjoyed this beautiful little Austrian city. We got 3-4 days of "summer". The sky was clear and The sun was really strong so we got a bit of tan too :D We had a wonderful 3(or 4?) days there.

Salzburg

We used carpooling again to get to Salzburg. On the way we could see some peaks of the Alps. We couldn't take our eyes of the landscape. I grew up in Hungary so it's pretty amazing to see huge mountains for me:P

view from the highway

Alps

We arrived at around 9 in the evening to Salzburg and our host(Jonnas) gave us a quick tour of the city. The streets were empty and everything was quiet. The main turist attractions were lighten up and the darkness was hiding the snowy mountains from our eyes.

Salzburg at night

The first day we decided to discover Salzburg. Small little streets everywhere with beautiful baroque architecture. You can find in the center Mozart's birth-house and of course a lot of souvenir shop full of Mozart things :P. Even this period of the year there were many turists everywhere.

Small street in Salzburg

Later we went up on a hill (where the modern art museum is)where we could see the whole city and The Alps. It was just amazing standing there and watching this gorgeus view. I even had time to paint! :D Unfortunately we didn't went up to the castle because we would've had to pay entrance.:( But for the christmas market is free.  In the end of the day we were really tired.

Up

Salzburg

We decided the next morning that we will climb up on Gaisberg. It's the closest big mountain to Salzburg. It takes about 2 hours to go up(for us it took around 3 hours but we stopped a lot:P)

flower

on the way up

If you are lazy you can take a bus up there or if you have your own car you  can drive up to the top. Theres a small pub there where you can enjoy your beer in front of a beautiful background. But the Austrians are not lazy at all! they bike up the mountain and than they ride down between the rocks! Or just "simply" run up the mountain at the age of 50. For us it was really amazing watching these people.

almost the top

close to the end

On the top what we saw is undiscribable. The pictures can't give back fully the whole experience, being there... The landscape brought tears into our eyes.

on the top

on the top together

view from Gaisberg

It was one of the most beautiful days of my life. The effort to get there was nothing compared to the feeling that this view gave me.
The next day we had to camp but fortunately the weather was beautiful and we didn't have any problem. We just had to carry around our heavy backpacks for one day but we survived:P

with the full arsenal:P

With the other half of the arsenal :)

We tried busking a little bit too witch wasn't bad:P. Actually I expected more musicians than we saw but maybe it's not the season yet. At night we went up on the hill. The sleeping bags were even too hot at night, and we saw the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen.

Sunrise

Salzburg in Orange

Salzburg is one of those places that you have to see before you die!:P And more about busking coming soon!:P