stoopid crazy slovak rule #347

ONE BIN OF GARBAGE PER WEEK FOR PICKUP.

and these aren't your normal america-type garbage bins.  nope.  they're narrower, see?  and better enforced, so the rats don't gnaw through them.

like the night shot?  thought i'd mix it up a bit.  actually, i took this pic at or about 4pm-ish here, but lest we forget, we are in central europe and it's only been 20 yrs since the fall of communism.  still takes a toll on those daylight hours, dontchaknow...

last week, when i had a plethora of extra moving related detritus to be whisked away, we set it out NEXT to the trash bin.  bin was already half full of leaves.  (we don't put leaves in the bin.  but my snaggle-toothed strega nona next door neighbor does).  IN OUR BIN.  actually, they're OUR LEAVES, too.  but i have no idea what posesses her to wander around our garden picking up leaves and dumping them in our bin.  we have enough leaves for 30 trashbins at the moment (and that's only for what is on the ground).  if she's gonna start picking up my leaves, she may as well pick 'em all up. 

needless to say, NOTHING that we had placed NEXT to the bin was removed last week.  including the excess kitchen trash.  granted, we may have had a little more than our share of ikea cardboard last week, but landlady said just put it all out and they'll take it. 

or not. 

so i lugged it all back in.  save for the kitchen trash, which i put in the bin for THIS week (so i'm already behind)...

today, i meet up w/ the garbage guys (as an aside, they back their GARBAGE-TRUCK sized GARBAGE TRUCK all the way up to the top of our hill on our VERY narrow street and then make their way back down).  so i'm given ample notice cuz i can hear 'em coming (forwards and backwards).  so, w/ 3 EXTRA trash bags in hand that didn't fit in the bin, i make my way out to the truck.  i arrive just as they are hooking up my bin to the back to dump in. 

"zlaty blaty blah blah blah"

huh?  um, i just want to throw these extra bags in the back, ok?

"zlaty blaty blah blah blah.  NO."

ahhhh, that i heard clearly.

no?

NO.

but i'll even throw them in the back for you - i knows alls abouts those tricky EU labor laws.  you don't have to lift a finger.

NO. NO. NO.

and then he chucks the garbage bin back to the gate, hops on the truck and rides another 20 meters, forgetting all about me and my trash bags, while he begins the process all over again. 

no wonder they need the rat man 'round here.  my garage is starting to fill up w/ all this un-disposable trash!

so, that's ONE thing i miss about china.  TWICE DAILY garbage pickup.  on a tricycle, no less.

sigh....