Busking in Split, Croatia

I went busking for the first time, and it was in Croatia!

I’ve always wanted to go busking. I’d been trying to gather up enough courage to go for ages. After three weeks here in Split watching other buskers, I finally forced myself to go!

I chose to go for the first time on the main street in the old city, I’d seen lots of other buskers there.

I was pretty nervous as I walked down to the street with my violin case slung across my back, but Mum and Dad were walking me down so I couldn’t run away.

I unzipped the case and sprinkled some coins in it to act as bait. Apparently, people don’t like to be the first one to put money in. I waited until mum and dad had left and started to play Waltzing Matilda.

Within two minutes of starting to play, a man dropped a 20 kuna note in! I’ll always remember him, the first person who ever put money in my case. He was wearing a beige bomber jacket.

After that, the tips simply flowed in. The little kids seemed to like me the most. All the toddlers stared at me, they were so cute!

People in Croatia are very generous and kind. I got thumbs up and what I assumed were compliments although being in Croatia I couldn’t understand them. I just smiled a lot.

After about an hour-and-a-half busking, my back and neck muscles were killing me, so I had to pack up and go. I didn’t really want to. It’s actually quite fun being out there, but it’s probably good that I didn’t stay there too long at a time. People were possibly getting sick of my limited repertoire of six songs!

All-in-all I made 290 Croatian Kuna, 1:50 Bosnian Marks, and 1 Euro, which translates to 65 Australian Dollars!

It’s a shame I was too scared to go out before but now I know that it’s actually fun and a good way to get out of the house.