Hey y’all – last time I left off, I was just preparing to depart Siófok, Hungary. Since then, I’ve been to Debrecen, Hungary and then to Presov, Slovakia and then further to the cities of Rzeszow and Lublin in Poland.

The 3 1/2 hour drive from Siófok to Debrecen on Friday was really boring. It was very flat and similar terrain the whole way. Just field after field. It felt like I was driving through Kansas. Below are some shots from this section of the route. Some of the fields were at least pretty to look at, but it was a fairly uninteresting drive overall.

Here are a few pics of the drive:

Arriving in Debrecen, I could see some very dark clouds on the horizon. It definitely looked like it was going to storm. I was pretty bummed to see this because all day I’d been looking forward to getting into the city and busking for the first time this trip and it was looking like I was going to get rained out. I got to the apartment I rented and met the owner and he told me I was only steps from the main pedestrian area of the city and that he thought that the rain was going to come and then pass, but when I checked the the weather channel it was showing storms until midnight. The dark clouds remained, but the rains held off for a bit, so I had time to get out and shoot a few pics of the main sights and get some dinner and get back to the apartment in time to beat the downpour.

Below are some pics from downtown Debrecen:

After checking out all the tourist sights (and scouting a place to busk on the off chance it didn’t rain or would quit raining early) , I decided to go to this traditional Hungarian restaurant that I’d read about. It turned out to be an amazing choice. They had tons of traditional cuisine and the waiter helped me choose a soup and a type of pork steak covered in pepper. The food was really good, but the pork was just a little spicy. Afterwards, it started raining, so I hurried up back to the apartment just in time to miss the worst of it.

I chilled for a while at the apartment while it rained intensely, but for a fairly short duration. When it looked like it had stopped and had been for a while, I went back out and had another look at the town and checked out some bars that I had found on Google. The bars didn’t look very appealing. I mostly just wanted to scout and see if it wouldn’t even be worth me trying to play, as by that time it was already around 9pm. At first almost every place I looked in and the streets in general were mostly empty, but as I walked around I started noticing more and more people appearing as if they were headed out on the town. After a bit of deliberating back and forth with myself as to if it was worth dragging all my music stuff out and trying to play at that late hour and with more possible rain coming, I decided that it would have to be better than sitting at the apartment – and if nothing else it would be good practice for the next day in Presov, Slovakia. I grabbed my stuff and headed down to the main drag to play.

Busking turned out to be a fantastic idea. I had a bunch of people stop by and listen for a song or two and talk to me. Got a few people to take pictures of my sign in order to be able to find my music, and made about 34 euros worth of Hungarian currency in 90 minutes of playing. It felt really great and encouraging to get that type of response that late at night and in the post – rain situation. It was pretty much all local people stopping by and I’d say almost half of everybody that walked by threw a little something in my case. A fine ratio indeed, and and was hopefully a sign of good things on the days to come of playing for locals and tourists in the busier part of the season in the bigger (tourism-wise) cities I’m going to be going to in the Baltics!

Eventually, the cops dropped in and shut me down, but there was no harm no foul from them – at least not for me. They gave the old drunk guy that had been hanging out in my area and listening to me play a ticket for drinking beer in public, which was a shame because he’d been an ok guy and wasn’t hurting anybody. Once they realized I was just a dumb American and found out that I was leaving for Slovakia the next day, they simply sent me on my way. I know some of these cities have ordinances against busking or want you to apply for a permit, but I don’t really care. I always say it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is for permission, particularly when the “crime” involved is busking.

12,000 Forint, about 32 bucks. Plus the two Euro Coin, for a take of roughly $35 bucks. Not bad for an hour and a half in Hungary on a slow night. Nearly paid for my room.

On Saturday morning, I checked out of my apartment in Debrecen and walked down first thing to the money changer that I had noticed when walking around the day before, and converted my Hungarian Fornits to Euros. Fornits wouldn’t be doing me any good since I was headed to Slovakia and back to the Euro.

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After trading the money and grabbing a a couple things at a bakery, I got on the road to Presov, Slovakia – 2 1/2 hours to the north. The drive started out as more of the same from Friday, but the land started to gain more contour as I got closer to the Slovakian border. I listened to the recording I took of the busking the night before and I got a big laugh listening back to the Hungarian woman who wanted to come up and sing “The River” by Garth Brooks. Her accent cracked me up, but she was actually a half decent singer.

Crossing into Slovakia, the land was definitely more hilly – and it wasn’t long at all until I reached my destination of Presov. After a bit of confusion, I found my hotel and got checked in. The location was perfect for the pedestrian only thoroughfare, but was a little tricky to get to by car. I grabbed a shower and then set out to explore.

Upon stepping out into the city center, I realized quickly that some type of festival was underway. There were people everywhere and food and other vendors set up, along with a massive stage. I did some inquiring and found that it was the “Presov Days” festival and that tonight the biggest star in Slovakia was going to be playing the main stage. This was unexpected and in some ways cool, but I had been planning to play music on these streets myself, and now found up that there will be a huge band playing until 10pm. Not ideal. I decided to walk around and have some food and a couple of beers and enjoy a bit of the music and then attempt to play as soon as the band was done. Not the best situation, as the town normally has a 10pm quiet hours, but I was betting on the police letting me slide since everyone seemed to be in a festive mood….

When the band was about half done with their set, I walked back to the car and grabbed all my music stuff and brought it back to the main drag to set up. I wound up choosing the base of the big church because it had some light, was just off the main walkway, but was just far enough away to not be too much in anybody’s face. After setting up, some police arrived in their car and got out to patrol a bit – but didn’t say a word to me. So I took that as a good sign to give her a rip. As soon as they had finished on the main stage, I let go with “Last Kiss” and I swear to you that before I finished the first chorus I had 10 euros in the case. Soon there were about 15 people hanging around and I’d say 75 percent of people walking by came over to throw money in my case before continuing on their way. It was incredible. Folks were dancing and asking me where I was from, taking pictures of the sign and with me – I really felt like a star. I played on until about 11:30 and decided I’d pushed the noise ordinance enough and packed up. When I got home and counted the money up, I had 83 euros. Really not bad for playing just over 1 hour in Slovakia, especially given the late start and after another band.

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On Sunday morning, I checked out of my room in Presov and made my way north to the Polish border and on to Rzeszow, Poland. Rzeszow (pronounced Shesh-Ov) is a fairly large city in southeast Poland that I was keen to check out. The drive there was very very pretty, with a lot of nice mountainish scenery along the way.

Upon arrival in the center of Rzeszow, I found my hostel pretty easily, but was dismayed by the fact that it didn’t have parking – but was greatly pleased by the fact that it sat directly on the main pedestrian walkway of the city. After unloading my stuff, I found a nearby parking lot and secured the Fiesta. After that I set out to check out the main sights of the city on foot and get some dinner. The architecture and food both turned out to be top notch.

After dinner, I headed back to the hostel to grab my gear and hit the street. I set up just across from my room. It started out a little slower than the previous night, but it wasn’t long before people were stopping by and throwing money in my case. Soon there was a crowd gathered around and I was getting requests and even some dancers. I played for about 2 hours and in the end I’d sold two CDs and had the equivalent of 87 euros in my guitar case. An older couple said their friend has a large restaurant in the main square and he heard the video they posted of me playing and wanted to book me to come play at his restaurant in a couple weeks or after. So I’m not sure if I’ll make the trek back there or not for that, but it sure felt good to get that offer. And it felt good to pay for all my food and accomodations and have profit left over for two nights in a row, just by doing what I love for a few minutes.

I tried out an app I downloaded to allow me to take video from my tablet camera in the background while I have my lyrics pulled up and I got a couple clips from there that I want to share to give you a first person view of what busking is like. Too much fun – and there’s no better feeling as a musician than to have total strangers come up and give you money because they like what they hear 😎

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In the morning on Monday, I checked out of my hostel and carried all my stuff to the car and got on the road to Lublin, the largest city in eastern Poland, which was two hours to the north. It was another fairly boring drive, but very relaxed with little traffic. Below are some pics from the drive between Rzeszow and Lublin.

I hadn’t eaten anything yet today, so when I got to Lublin I stopped at a gas station to fill up and have a snack. While I was there the skies opened up with a downpour the likes of which I’ve not seen in a very long time. There was nickel sized hail, and later when I left the gas station, many areas were flooded and debris was on the road. I made it my hostel a few minutes later and found that once again it was perfectly located for the old town, but didn’t have parking. So I unloaded all my stuff in the rain and then took the Fiesta to a nearby by parking lot and headed up to my room to wait out the rain. After about 45 minutes I noticed the sun was back out, so I set out to look at the sites and get some dinner.

Unfortunately, as soon as I walked out of the restaurant it started drizzling again and never quit. So my prime busking location in Lublin has gone to waste. Instead, I’ve spent tonight researching my next moves and getting this post ready to share with you guys.

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My plan from here is to visit a couple of Holocaust related sites that are in the vicinity of Lublin. One is just on the outskirts of Lublin and it’s called Majdanek and the other is about two hours north and it’s called Treblinka. Both are sure to be sad experiences, but I am a student of history and I cannot pass the opportunity up to see these places that I have read so much about. When I visited Auschwitz a few years ago it was a very sobering, yet informative and memorable experience.

Tomorrow night, I have reserved a hotel room for two days in the city of Bialystok, which is the largest city in Northeast Poland and where I’m planning to be my last stop before my ultimate destination of the Baltic states, starting with Lithuania. It will also be the first place I’ve stayed more than one night (other than Ljubljana) and I’m looking forward to sleeping in for one morning rather than having to get up and check out of my accommodation. The good news though is that I’m ahead of schedule by two days, as I was planning two nights each in Rzeszow and Lublin and found once I got there that I only needed one night to do everything I wanted to do. That means I’ll have extra time at the end of my trip to check out some more places in Poland and the Czech Republic (on my way back to Germany) than I had originally planned on.

That is all of my news for now. Thanks for reading this very long post all the way through and be sure to subscribe and leave me a comment so I know you dropped by. Talk to you guys again in a few days.