Journey with one cubic meter of artist’s books to Hamburg
In the morning it was snowing. Yesterday late in the last night I have put boxes with the artist’s books in my car. Today I have only to clean my car from the snow and to start my journey to Hamburg Book Fair. It is more than 1300 km in the winter.
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It was a little snowing and the road was with ice and not cleaned from the fresh snow. I was driving in snow-covered road and thinking, why I want to go to Lapland, if we have normal winter in Lithuania. Later in Poland the road become more clean and good, but it was the same wonderful – classic winter.
After all day driving, when become dark, near German border my car generator stopped to work and I had to stop on the highway. The situation has become tragic – in my car one cubic meter of artist’s books, my car doesn’t work, hotel booked in Berlin, tomorrow in Hamburg opening of the artist’s book exhibition, and now it is night.
After few calls to car masters in Lithuania I decided to go to the first village and to ask for the help. Thank God it was a small village, where I have been staying earlier overnight with my students. The owner of the Hostel met me with smile: “Litwa. Studenty” (Lithuania, students). Yes, Lithuania, but no students, only car with some problems. That is not problem, he said, we have masters and they will repair your car till the morning. The big garage was not special Toyota service, but they ordered the new original generator in the night and it was in garage in the 8 hour in the morning. When I remembering our small problems with Toyota Previa brakes in Lille, in France, in special Toyota service, where we had to wait 3 days only for few ordinary parts… But it was in France, where nobody haven’t seen Toyota…
In the morning, in 11 a.m. the car was like new, and I continue my journey. Thanks to good Polish people who helped for Lithuanian artist. Now I had only to drive with bigger speed, if I wanted to come in time. But Germany is country without speed limit, so you have only to pray in order to avoid traffic on the highway.
I came to Hamburg, installed the Artist’s Book Exhibition and at 7 p.m. participated on the opening of the Book Fair in “Museum der Arbeit”. The Fair was very good, and our Exhibition “Artist’s Books from Lithuania” had many visitors and warm and good reviews.
The road from Hamburg was really beautiful. Everything was covered with light fog, or maybe the clouds came down, and everything was in hoarfrost. The sun shone through the fog cloud. Windmills rotating drowned in the cloud.
Museum der Arbeit – the Book Fair is closed
On the road home I stopped in Poland in nice private pension with strange mirror in my room… and great-grandparents portraits of the owners in the dinning room. In the morning I was sitting alone in dinning room, eating breakfast with coffee and listening the stories of ancestors of the owner…
The small road from the pension to the highway was fantastic beautiful.
I just needed to drive last 5oo km until Vilnius, and in the next day to go to the Police to pay the fine for speeding (+40 km) during my last journey… Like said one my friend, Hanne, sometime we have to pay extra.
Kestutis Vasiliunas
Driver (curator)
