LOW COST TRIPS AROUND BRUSSELS: LES SERRES ROYALES

 There is one tourist attraction in Brussels which only opens to public once a year, for three weeks. It is not exclusive and it is not expensive. Very well-reputed, it attracts big numbers of people every year. Do you wish for a day under palm trees? Or maybe you feel like smelling countless species of colourful flowers? Believe it or not, all this is possible in Brussels. Between 15 April and 8 May 2011 make sure you visit Les Serres Royales or The Royal Greenhouses.

Destination: Les Serres Royales in Laeken.

Transport: underground line 6, get off at Bockstael and walk for about 10 minutes.

Equipment: a camera and a partner for a romantic walk.

Cost: 2,5 euro admission fee.

Brussels has been treating us extremely well lately. Weather-wise. The sunny, warm weather is just the kind of spring I was hoping for. We have thus been exploring the parks and walks of the city, waiting for the rainy days to give us incentive to go to the museums. Last weekend, upon several colleagues’ recommendation, we decided to visit The Royal Greenhouses. In spite of a significant number of people who had apparently come up with the exact same idea, we were not disappointed.

The Greenhouses (yes, in plural) are situated next to the Royal Palace in Laeken and occupy an enormous terrain. The buildings are vast and beautiful, built in the XIX century by Alphonse Balat for no other than king Leopold II, with whom I have already become acquainted at the Museum of Africa, its “Colonisation, Slavery and Brutal Tyrants” part, to be specific. As opposed to colonizing Congo, however, the Greenhouses seem to have been an excellent idea. They were built in glass and iron, and until today house thousands of plants, some of which are said to have been ordered to be brought from Congo by our favourite king.

Having paid the 2,5 euros, you follow a pre-defined path (sadly, there is no possibility of getting off the beaten track), and wait patiently as the people ahead of you take their pictures. You then proceed to take the exact same pictures, while making the people behind you wait. All this takes place in a relaxed and positive atmosphere, with several people offering to take romantic pictures of you and your boyfriend surrounded by pink flowers. Bliss.

The walk is long; you go in and out the greenhouses, and as you go out you can admire the amazing grounds, neatly marked as “off limits”, as they belong to the Royal Family and so only Royal Family are authorized to stroll gracefully, royally and in complete solitude in those grounds. Is it the communist legacy that makes me question monarchy?

This and many other questions of similar importance, such as When’s lunch?, ran through my head as we approached a very strange item on our itinerary: the Japanese tower. Perplexed at first, later we found out that both the tower and the nearby Chinese Pavilion were ordered – surprise! – by Leopold II and were designed by French architects. The Museum of Far East gives them a purpose today. Why they were built in the first place remains a mystery.

Having taken the tour of the Greenhouses and the oriental monuments of French origin, which inspired us to have lunch, we made a final stop in the park opposite the Royal Palace. There too Leopold II left his trace: a huge neo-gothic monument of his progenitor, Leopold I. The latter looks rather morbid but the park is definitely worth a stroll. 

Drawbacks? Maybe the fact you can't just wander around king's grounds. But a lovely day altogether. Hurry up! You're running out of time!

DAMN YOU THIN PLASTICS!

So, my computer crashed, and then died, putting me in the very uncomfortable position of having to use an azerty Belgian keyboard long enough for me to be now confusing my w's and z's on the normal Polish - thank goodness for that! - keyboard. As my laptop inexplicably sprang back to life, however, my fingers seem to have momentarily forgotten where the a really sits, so some of my words may come out in strange spelling. You'll hqve to deql.

Even though I would gladly spend more time complaining about the horrors of Belgian keyboard, this is not the point of my new entry. Some of you may know, while many remain ignorant on the subject, that I am on my way to become a waste management expert. How, where and, most interestingly, why it is so, I will inform you in due course. Back to the point. This post, believe it or not, has been inspired by a blue garbage bag sitting happily on my kitchen floor. Why is it on my kitchen floor? Because it was returned to me by the garbage collectors with a big red sticker. Why was it returned? The sticker, through an enormous STOP sign, politely lets us know that the bag contains waste which was not destined for this particular bag. Kindly please remove the surplus irrelevant waste and let us collect the bag again. Thank you.

For the first time ever, I know that my garbage has been looked through and - in this particular case - frowned upon. I feel ashamed. My waste sorting skills are not up to Belgian standards. Damn you plastic yoghurt pots!

How does it work? I find the whole system rather amusing. First of all, you must buy special garbage bags. Not just regular plastic bags, they won't do. Blue bags for plastic, yellow for paper and, I think, white for non-recyclable waste. Then you fill your bags with carefully selected garbage (don't think that all plastic is plastic, you'll be highly disappointed). Finally, you just put the full bags outside your door, as there are no containers to store them until the garbage man comes. Moreover, the paper garbage men come on Thursdays, plastic garbage men on Wednesdays (I think), and so on and so forth, so unless you follow the waste calendar closely, you might miss your day and have to store your garbage for another week. Result: plenty of garbage bags in the streets. The restaurants gain a special appeal on garbage day, I assure you.

As I've already explained, only specified types of waste can go into the bags. And so the plastic bag, cannot contain - seriously! - other plastic bags, thin plastics, yoghurt pots and the like. This is not a joking matter: if unsuitable plastic is discovered, and discovered it will be!, the bag is packed up again and delivered onto your doorstep, so that you remove the undesired plastic yourself. Obviously, it would've been easier if the person who initially goes through your rubbish did the removing bit as well, but then we would all miss out on the educational value, which makes us learn from our own mistakes. Eco-education at its best.

And so, I shall now don gloves and sort through my already-sorted-through bag of plastic waste, so that the Belgian authorities are happy with my conduct. 

Damn you thin plastics and yoghurt pots!

Stay green.

Picture comes from here.