The Busking Mafia

Yes they do exist in various cities, mostly in Europe as I’ve begun to discover.

The busking mafia is basically a group of buskers who take over all the best busking spots and don‘t let anyone else play. Gasp, horror, the evils of society finally come to light!

Apparently since Romania became part of the EU, tons of Romanians have made there way to the richer European countries where they form organised busking and begging communities.

My friend Michael, a local Hamburger, had suspected something was up about these buskers for a while. In the 5 days I spent in Hamburg, I saw about 20 different people playing the accordion.

If you want to busk somewhere and there’s already a busker there, you should ask the current busker how long they will be and suggest swapping on an hourly basis. That’s pretty common busker etiquette.

Most cities have busking laws stating that a busker can’t occupy a pitch for more than an hour or two,

This is where the mafia come in.

The accordion players in Hamburg didn’t stay in the same place all day, rather swapped every few hours, so you could never get a good spot.

Bergen, Norway did not have such a strong busking presence, but was rife with beggars. Rumour has it, beggars and accordion players are in cahoots, controlling the scene on the street and making a fortune.

I played in a spot in Bergen where I’d seen an accordion player the day before. I had a good set. Then the accordion player came up to me.

“I play here” he said “you go, I play here”.

My non confrontational nature really came to light. I said OK and walked away.
For more on the beggar/busking mafia in Bergen, read this article.

Gothenburg in Sweden had a similar system but with a begging mafia rather than a busking mafia. Apparently up to 60 beggars were driven to town in a bus and picked up at the end of the day. Where they live, nobody knows

Fortunately they gave me no trouble. We nodded at each other and I made sure I played a long way away. I’d rather not find a horse’s head in my bed thank you very much.

A Time for Change

I have a love-hate relationship with coins. I love that they’re money, but I hate pretty much everything else about them. They’re heavy, noisy, easy to lose but hard to get rid of.

I learnt the importance of getting rid of coins the hard way. I tried to get rid of my coins before I left Germany but no banks would take them. Fortunately my lovely friends in Hamburg offered to take them off my hands, unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

I suddenly found myself in Scandinavia lugging over 150 euros in coins through 3 different countries with 3 different currencies. It’s a lot like putting rocks in your backpack. Stupid.

In Norway I bought myself a ticket for a fjord tour. The man went out back to print my ticket.

On his return he found 800krona in coins neatly piled on the counter.

He looked at the coins, unsure of what to do.

“So, ummm, you’ll be paying in cash then?” he asked.

Some people are not so nice about it. I bought a local bus ticket in Italy. It was only a 1.50euro so I thought it would be a good opportunity to use up some of the annoying bronze coins I was lugging around.

I started counting out 1c, 2c and 5c coins. The man started to lose his patience.
“Do you have anything bigger?” he asked
I looked up from counting.
“No” I lied

I got to about 1.30 and ran out of bronze coins. I had to subtly pull out a few 10c coins. That’s when he cracked.

“No, no I can’t accept these coins” he said
“But you have to” I said, “it’s legal tender”
“I cannot! No one will take these coins.”
“I know, but you have to”

Stubborn Maya was out to play.

We argued a little longer. A line started to build behind me. I had all the time in the world, the shopkeeper did not. I won.

Samsung. Global. Blogger. Winner. Stupid.

While I was working on Hayman, my mother asked me ‘what’s next?’
After going from working on the street to a 5 star resort, the obvious next step was the Olympics.

I started looking at Olympic jobs last year, and even applied for a few that I was grossly unqualified for. It seemed the Olympic organisers were mainly looking for people could organise things. i.e not me.

Then I heard about this Samsung Olympic blogging competition. It had my name written all over it- Olympics, blogging, videos.

Fast forward a couple of months and I’m sitting in a hostel in Copenhagen and I found out I won.

I looked around for the Germen guy I’d befriended, he wasn’t there. I didn’t know anyone else. I smiled at people in a way that said ‘you should come talk to me so I can tell you how awesome I am’. Didn’t happen.

I skyped my very excited parents. Mum wanted all the details so I decided it would be easier to forward her the email. The email that said if you don’t reply in 5 days time you forfeit your prize.

Obviously I replied in time. I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go begging, or was I?

7 days later I was surprised that I still hadn’t heard back. I checked my original email. I’d accidentally sent it to my Mum. Yes, I am that incompetent.

I wrote a somewhat hysterical email to the original address and played the waiting game. That painful kind of waiting game where your stomach is in knots and you’re filled with regret.

Anyhoo, it’s all good now. It looks like the universe has smiled down on me once again. Lucky Maya.

My prize:

• Flights to London (not using them, already here)
• 10 nights accommodation in London (in a hotel, not a tent or a bus shelter :))
• Tickets to at least one Olympic event 
• Samsung Galaxy Note or Samsung phone

For more info on the competition click here