I spent 3 days there, catching up with an old friend back from my days as an exchange student in Montreal, and just wandered around this wonderfull city, my inner busker always on the look out for the perfect spot! The weather during my stay wasn't always the best, but amidst the dull grey skies, the city offered me one of my favourite pics from the entire trip:
The second day I set my heart on the Haga neighborhood, with it's cosy walking streets and handicraft shops. So I decided to set up shop in Haga Nygata:
My busking times in Göteborg are amongst my favourite memories from the trip. In the last couple of days I had been writing a new song, entitled Child of the Universe. I got the inspiration for this one a few days before, back in Norway just before entering Sweden. I had left Fredrikstad and was trying to find a way around to Norway. Coming up to the crossroads I pause to take a look at my maps. This friendlyguy comes up to me asking me whether I am lost and would need any help. After letting him know that I am ok we start chatting, me telling him about my cycling adventures, and him telling me the story of how he ended up staying in Norway after coming up here as an exchange student from Togo. When I asked whether he missed his homeland he said: "I am a child of the universe,everywhere I am at home". And later as we parted and I was pondering upon which route to take, either the most direct and slightly boring one, or the more scenic/hilly/windy one along the coast, he kept on repeating: "you got to take it easy. I guess he meant I should take my time on the scenic one, which I ended up on.
These two phrases: "I am a Child of the Universe" and "Take it easy", and the philosophy behind them, stuck in my head for the remaining days of the trip to Göteborg, and so on my first day there I put them into a song called "Child of the Universe".
Anyways that day busking in Haga was my first time performing this song to anyone. And I had been playing for a little while by the time I got to this one. But as it came to an end, one of the shop owners nearby just jumped out of here store like a jack-in-the-box and came up to me to tell me she had been listening to me from the beginning and really enjoyed it, but that for this song in particular, she felt she needed to come out and tell me how wonderfull it was, and how good it made her feel. That meant the world to me, it doesn't get much better than that when you play a new song for the first time and don't really know what to expect, or how people are going to react to it. It felt pretty good!
The second day busking in Haga I also remember quite fondly, because that's the day I met Chao Chen, another wonderfull encounter and stranger who happened to make my day. Chao took amazing pictures that day, one of which I later used as the cover for my One Girl Band album.
I don't know what the rules are for busking in Göteborg, but I wasn't bothered by police while I played overthere, but then again I didn't use amplification so I don't know... All I can say is Haga is a nice and friendly neighborhood to be busking in!
