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 law changed in Vienna

Vienna

About two month ago a journalist, Sophia Chung (from The Vienna Review) contacted us and asked some questions about street music in Vienna for her article. She informed us that there have been new laws passed last month further limiting street musicians in Vienna. There are now regulations on noise level, number of musicians, and stricter laws on when/where/how long people can play. The laws were tightened because people living in the first district complained of noise and crowd levels.

You can read the entire article here:
Playing for time- A busker in Vienna

Visiting Vienna

This is the last night in Graz and it's still raining so I have time to write on the blog about What is worth to visit in Vienna in my opinion.:)

This time when we were in Vienna we didn't really have time to visit many places but a year before we spent 3 days and looked around in the center.

Karlsplatz

But we still took "a day off" from busking and we went to Albertina Museum and saw the best exibition of my life. It was impressionism and in the other floors you could see drawings from Klimt and the little collection of paintings between Monet and Picasso. It was amazing!
And of course this is not the only Museum in Vienna. In the Museum Quarter you can find out more information about the exibitions in Vienna.

Museum Quarter

Albertina Museum

If you just want to walk around you can start from the center(Stephansplatz). In the center there is a huge, beautiful, gothic cathedral,Stephansdom . You will meet in the main walking street with many street artists with different kind of perfomances (spray paintings, puppet show, music and so on).

Stephansdom

Stephansdom

And if you can't stand the crowd anymore you can go to Stadtpark. It's a small park about 5 minutes away from Stephansplatz. You can find their the Strauss statue. A lot of turists go to that park to see the statue. The lake is full of ducks and they are really friendly :) They come really close to you of course for food.:)

Stadtpark

The other nice park close to Stadtpark is Karlspatz. One of the most beautiful baroque church is Karlskirche. The big square makes the building more monumental and it takes your breath away. And if you really like parks than you should defenatly go to Danube park(Donau park). We got one beautiful day in Vienna when we had no clouds in the sky and we found that beautiful place.:) All the flowers were blooming and everything was green :)

Danube park

Danube park

There's a little colorful train that is going through the park. It's so cute and small.I loved it:)

little train:)

little train going between the trees

The whole park belongs to the newest part of Vienna, called Donau City. It's like a future city from 2050. Maybe for other Western-Europeans it's not a big deal to see skycrapers and such modern structures but for me, being an Eastern-European, it's like being in a sci-fi movie.:P

Donau City in Vienna

Oh,.. And I almost forgot about the Hundertwasser house. It's "hiding" in a small street in Vienna but it's quite easy to find it. It's about 15 minutes walk from Stadtpark. He knows how to combine nature and architecture :) And there is a factory designed by him on the U6 line that is also worth visiting. Unfortunately I don't have good photo of it:(

Hundertwasser houe

And of course you should defenatly visit the palaces in Vienna (Schönnbrunn, Belvedere).I visited Belvedere(10-15euros the entrance) a year before but unfortunately We didn't go to Schönnbrunn:( But i am sure that I will see it soon :D

Maybe what I wrote is a bit chaotic but that's how thoughts came to my mind and I just wrote them down.:P But I still hope that you found something interesting in it.:)
Click here for more pictures!

Busking in Vienna

(Update! click here)

We spent the last week in Vienna and tried to find nice places to play on the street though the weather was windy, rainy  and cold most of the time. We got bad and good luck too, but all in all it was a nice experiance. And now we'll try to give you the full image about busking in Vienna.

Valentin playing in Stadtpark

Rules:

In the center of the city you need a permit to play. They have a quite clear system for it. You have to go to a certain place at the last monday of any month and you have to pay some money for it. They give a limited numer of permits so the performers go there earlier and wait in a long line. If you go to a policemen he can give you the exact data where and when to go.

But if you just travel through Vienna you can find legal free places as well. Like Karlsplatz, Stadtpark, Mariahilfer strasse(under the clock, next to the metro stop), Museums Quartier (in one place but we heard it's not the best) and so on. The rule is that you can play an hour in one place than you have to move. But later you can go back.

Finding a good place:

First of all it depends on when you play and what you play. In the center(Stefansplatz) you have to be unique. People want shows. After 13:00 o'clock every 5-10 meters there's a busker or groups of buskers. So I recommend for bands to try it out in the center, or places where people don't expect bands like the free places. they react really good for unusual things.

Buskers close to Stephanplatz

If you want to play without a permit, it's hard to find a place and probably after 30 minutes the police will come and ask for your permit. I don't think so that they will fine you at the first times, but they have the right to do that and also if they're really pissed they can take your instrument away. But they're not violent. We tried it once at around 6-7 pm it wasn't bad but after half an hour we decided to go home cause we tried to avoid any kind of fines.

On Karlsplatz, there's an underground pessage where you can play right before the line(the rest is metro area and you are not allowed play in the metros) you have to be careful with the time, cause the police station is close by and they really check it how long you play. But most of the time they are just bored cause they have nothing else to do so they're "harressing" buskers, but they're still talking nice and polite. The criminality is much lower in Vienna than in Budapest.

Karlsplatz

The similarity is that you find everywhere Hungarian and Romanian gypsies or just simple Hungarians and Romanians playing their robotic music on accordion, or any other instrument. And usually they don't care about the law. We went to talk with one of them about how long he wants to play and he said till he makes enough money (the same answer as in Budapest). And of course they're changing eachother so they occupie the free places for the best hours. And if you play sometimes they start playing almost right next to you... It's sad!

In Mariahilfer strasse we heard that the best time is around 5 pm, but if you want to play there you must go there an hour earlier(or more) otherwise it's taken. We were actually there around 3 and a accordionist gypsy guy was already sitting there, waiting for 5 o'clock to come. So you need to be there one or more hours earlier and wait till 17:00, and if anyone else comes than tell them you are allready waiting for the place.

Sometimes we got lucky and get the places without any problem but sometimes it happend that we walked more than one hour in the center to find free places to play.

Best places:

In the center is the best free palce is Stadtpark, close to the clock (made out of flowers) about 50 meters away from the Strauss statue, close to the entrance to the park. A lot of turists walk by to see the statue and a lot of parents with their little kids. Even if they don't pay the children's reaction is always adorable. :)

Cute audiance :D

On the bridge

The other mantionable place in Stadtpark is the bridge. Not as good as the other place but still it's worth to play there.

The best place what we found in one week was Florisdorf(metro station U6). We made 25 euros in close to half an hour. The best time to play there is around 7, cause people come from work or going to the center. That place is always busy. The acoustic is really good under the passage and the music is much more impressive. I personally really enjoyed playing there.:)

Florisdorf

So the final conclusion about Vienna is that it's a huge city full of possibilities and if you are good and lucky enough you can make a lot of money:P

It's raining but that doesn't stop us :)

Yesterday we went to Albertina (a Museum close to Stephansplatz) And saw an exibition of Impressionism and much more. :P After that we went to Stadtpark and found a better place to play until the rain started, but that didn't stop us:P And the photo is the proof of it :)

The first days in Vienna

Two days ago we arrived in Vienna. We found a place to stay for the whole week through Couchsurfing. It's a really good site and a brilliant idea to make your trip cheaper. I recommend sending as many couchrequest as you can and as soon as you know where you want to go (around a week before). This way I think you have a bigger chance of finding a couch.

We actually got lucky cause somebody(Sabine) offered us a whole flat where we can stay for a week.In the begining the weather seemed good but yesterday it was really cold and rainy and Valentin got a cold too (I hope it's nothing serious). Today is a lot warmer, but the busking is not as succesful as yesterday.

Though the weather was bad we managed to make close to 30 euros in an hour but we couldn't play more cause our shoses got really wet. The place where we played called Karlsplatz. One of our friends showed us the place. The best time to play there is between 12.00-15.00 and maybe 17.00-19.00.

Playing in Stadtpark

We tried Stadtpark too. It's a nice park in the center and a lot of kids are playing there with their parents. We played  next to the bridge. It wasn't that bad but could've been better :P

Next week when we'll get to Graz we'll write more clear cause unfortunately we don't have internet in Vienna and the free wifis are slow.