Busking in Brussels

Sunset in Brussels

It's a huge city compared to the ones we've been lately. We had to get used to the crowd again, and I think Brussel is the most culturaly mixed city we have ever been to. The money was really good and we enjoyed most of our stay :)

Laws:
You need a permit. I don't know exactly where and how can you get is but it seems pretty relaxed. Probably if you are playing in the very center of Brussels with amplifier the police will ask you about the permit after a while. But in our experiance they didn't really care, there were at least 3 times when they passed us by but they didn't even look at us.

The best place ever in Brussels :P

Crowd at the Belgium Beer Festival

Our experiance:
The first day was horrible. We couldn't really find a place. We walked a lot looking for a place but we didn't find anything. For our music the walking streets in the center were too loud and crowded without an amplifier, and in the metro stations the radio was on. So after this our spirit was quite down but we had to try it on the next days again.
And after that horrible day it was much better! :) We found a place between the central station and the city center where the acoustic is really good and the "traffic" is good also. :P So after that we were really happy. we made about 50 euros in 2-3 hours on Saturday and the rest of the days were nice too :P

Than a month later we went back to this place. The money was the same, though we had problems with the gipsys. They played in front of the central station, like for the hole day and didn't let anybody else play... And you can't even talk with them. So we just waited for our "turn" and finally after 6 we got the place and we sang there an hour. Than drunk homeless people interrupted us... That day was a bit too much for me and I felt like I want to quit the whole busking thing and find a boring job instead. But on Sunday everything was perfect. No hobos, no gipsys, good money :) So it was a perfect last day! Busking is fun, but it can be really tiring like anything else.

Busking palces in Brussels

Best places:

• City center anywhere (if you are amplified or loud enough)
• Gare Centraal entrance to the city center
• The red dots are where we saw musicians

We haven't tried any other places in Brussels, but it's a big city and the distances are quite big so we sticked with the places what we knew already.
Brussels can be stressful, but you can make a lot of money if you find the right spot for the right kind of music.

First song on Youtube

Finally we finished with the CD and we thought maybe we should put some songs on youtube. As I mentioned before all the songs are cover songs but probably in the future there will be original ones too. It was a really good experiance for us to see how recording works, and that we have a lot to learn :D

Big Big Thanks to Johan De Pue who recorded, mixed and mastered it. :) Without him we couldn't do it! Here is the first song along with the cover of the album:)!

Busking in Leuven

Leuven is a really nice small city close to Brussels and we thought before we go to the capital we should give this smaller city a try. :) We were there right before the school started so the city was quite deserted but still it wasn't bad.

on the way to the center

Laws:
You need a permit which you can get for free.(The place where you can get its called Stadkontor and is very close to the train station) It's a piece of paper with the laws (only in dutch) and you have to have it with you if you are busking. You can stay in one spot for an hour than you have to change the place (200m). That is the basic law. :)

Grote Markt

Beautiful city hall

Our experiance:
We arrived on Sunday but we couldn't play because there was a festival or something like that going on in the center but the next days (mondays are usually bad) we tried to play in the shopping/walking streets. The average was around 10-15 euros per hour so it wasn't that good. But given that it was the begining of the week it might be better at weekends.

Best places:

Busking Places in Leuven

•  Grote Markt (for big bands)
• Diestes straat (Big walking street, that's where we played)
• Vaarstraat (somebody told us that it can be good)

I know it's not a lot of information but I hope it is still helpful :)

It's time for a bit of change

I didn't update for a long time so I thought it's time to give some signs that we are still alive. :P The last weeks we've spent in Netherlands and Belgium (Update from each city coming soon also :P) and the weather turned colder. We decided to make our way back home slowly (it will take about two months) through Germany and Austria again.

pretending to play the douple bass :)

Right now we're in Gent and we're about to leave in some hours to Brussels. We've stayed here a bit more than a week and we felt like it's time to record some stuff :) Our Friend, Johan has a small "studio" at his home, and he let us use it (BIG thanks for that!!!) so the last days we were working on our very first semi-professional "album"(just cover songs). Because of the time limit we couldn't make it perfect but soon everybody can decide it him/herself how good it is. :P

So now here are some pictures from the process and later on we'll post some of songs:)

Valentin recording

Without inspiration :P

We're not really playing together but nice picture :P

Busking in Liége

Our first stop in Belgium, not far from Maastrich, was Liége. Everybody told us that we should just skip it and go straight to Brussels, 'cause Liége is quite boring and ugly. And we met some buskers(a whole band) in Maastricht who told us that it was horrrible for them. So we waren't sure that it's a good idea to go...

Actually we really enjoyed the city and busking too :)

Liége

Laws:
There is an audition every month where you have to perform, and if you pass, you'll get a "busking card" and it's valid for one year. It's quite easy to get it. After the first year you have to go back for another audition but than for 3 years you don't have to go back. And it's all for free :) You are allowed to play one hour in one place than you have to move. And anyway if you don't play too loud and follow the one hour rule the police doesn't really care if you have a permit or not. It happened 3 times that they just passed us without any commentary.

Our experiance:
It was really good! :) First we were a bit sceptical about playing here, we didn't expect much. Than after the first 50 minutes we had already 30 euros. :) It seemed that the people in Liége are really willing to give money to street musicians even if they have just small change.
The next day we played half an hour and got a bit more than 10 euros, but unfortunately we couldn't play more cause in the square there was a market with loud music.

Tony Haven

Valentin :)

We met a guy who plays lap tapping acoustic guitar(he was really good) and for him it was okay too. Probably the Spanish guys weren't succesful because they are too loud and the police always stopped them...

Busking places in Liége

Best places:

• Rues Des Dominicains
• Pont d'lle
• corner of the Saint Paul Chatedral(bit loud)

It's not the most beautiful place to visit in Belgium but you can meet really nice people and enjoy the city :)

Busking in Maastricht

After staying a month in Germany we left to Netherlands. The first stop was Maastricht were we spent 5 great days :)

Sunset in Maastricht

Laws:
One of our hosts in Maastricht found out in an official site how things work. But unfortunately it's only in Dutch... Basicly it says that if your performance contains "noise" you have to have a permit. If you are individual musician just with instrument you don't need an audition (exept if you play with accordion,trumpets and loud instruments ). If you sing at the same time while playing an instrument or you are in a group you have to go for an audition. You're not allowed to use amplifier. You are not allowed to play in front of caffé's and ask for money afterwards. If you get the permit there are places where you are allowed to play half an hour than you have to change your place.

It doesn't say anything about having to pay for the permit. Somebody said it's 20 euros per day but I think it's ridiculous. And there is a woman on the street who had two flower-shaped spoons and she's just clapping with them and she got a permit...

So if you just read this you might get pretty scared, but we didn't meet anybody who had big problems playing on the streets without permit. We actually never met any policeman. Of course we heard stories that somebody got fined because he didn't have a permit, but if they catch you at the first time, and you are polite I don't think so that they will give you a fine immediately.

Swingdigentes

the mall

Our experiance:
It was good! :) The first days were extremely hot so we just played in the evenings. After 6pm 90% of the shops are closed and in 20 minutes everybody disappears amazingly fast from the streets. So we played in a deserted place where at least the acoustic was good. For us most of the time it is better like this. The average was around 15euros/40minutes which is good for us :P

Cafe de pieter

We were invited by a great!! musician/bartender  to play in a small pub in the center and in the end it turned out to be an open mic :) Almost everybody had some musical talent in the bar. We had such a great time!
And we also met wonderful musicians on the street! A whole band with drums and amplifier and blowing instruments. Though they didn't have a permit either, they didn't have problems at all with locals(I mean shops) or police. :)

busking places in Maastricht

Best places to play:

• Grote straat
• Kleine straat
• Maastrichter burgstraat
• Hoender straat mall entrance(that's where we played= the green dot)
• The walking bridge
• If you just chose one of the walking streets can be okay I think

In Maastricht we felt that we were really welcomed and it was very relaxing. We met wonderful people who made are stay even better! :)

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! :)