Miika Nousiaisen Metsäjätti (Otava 2011) on nykyaikainen työläisromaani. Työläisiä eivät ole vain vaneritehtaan duunarit vaan myös työnantajaa edustava päähenkilö Pasi, joka joutuu viemään kotipaikkakunnalleen tuliaisiksi yt-neuvottelut. Kirja ei ole Suuri Duunarieepos laajuudeltaan, mutta hakematta mieleen pulpahtivat Pohjantähti-trilogia, Elämänmeno, Solveig ja Jussi ja Arto Salmisen teokset. Aihepiiriä enemmän tähän vaikutti Nousiaisen tapa pitää näkökulma enimmäkseen (pääoman liikkeistä) kärsivän puolella. Ihmisten vähemmän ihailtavat luonteenpiirteet tuodaan esiin toteavasti, ja valittu tyyli saa aikaan hillityn tasapuolisen, jopa lakonisen tunnelman.

Törmälän teollisuuspaikkakunnan duunarit syntyvät pessimisteiksi, mikään ei ole tavoittelemisen arvoista, perhettä lyödään ja joulut juopotellaan. Silti Nousiainen kuvaa armottomammin työnantajaportaan edustajien tunteettomuutta ja pinnallisuutta.

Kipeintä minulle teki lukea pikkupoikien -myöhemmin teinien- haaveista, jotka yksi kerrallaan ammutaan alas. Nousiaisen alleviivaamaton kerronta kuitenkin saa jatkamaan, ei tullut mieleen keskeyttää.
Kirja ahdistaa, mutta hyvällä ja ajattelemaan pistävällä tavalla.

Wednesday, June 1st

Woke up at 6.25. A World Record of sleeping for me on this trip. May be due of the dinner on the preceeding night. After shower I had to do a serious re-packing since it was the day of my resigning. After breakfast I guided everybody to clean their cottages and collected the keys as well. We packed the trailer, and it took less time than ever before (though some needed something from their bags that already were in the bottom...), I got some valuable help from Sebastian, who actually mentioned that he had done aircraft packing for a occupation in the past.

In our crew briefing I tried to tell everything that I imagined that could help the others on the following days. I had already started feeling sad to quit everything, but now it became more concrete.

The cyclists left and Urpo, Antti and I helped the tent crew in packing the tent for their next pit. Some empty cans and bottles were recycled and fresh food was purchased from the grocery store. We said goodbye to our friendly, warm-hearted host of the camping site and put the van engine running (now it was Pasi's turn to sit behind the wheel, cause he was the one who was to do the driving for now on) and headed to the ferry harbour in Gedser. (On route we were wondering where Urpo and Antti disappeared with their van. Later Antti told me that Urpo was desperately seeking for a village to find a grocery store. The reason was -of course- ice cream)

Some kind of malfunction of document files had occurred in the ferry office, and the number of 80 international librarians on their bikes was some kind of surprise among the staff. But after all everything was clear. While waiting to qet in the ferry I said goodbye to everyone (it was easy cause you were standing in a military-lookalike-queue by your bikes and nobody was wandering around...). Tears were close.

At the ferry we enjoyed a nourishing sausage and mashed potato lunch. Tuomas also made a little interview about me and my thoughts for the Day 5 film. Ella and Mace adjusted the final finesses for the presentation in Rostock.

Ella and Mace at the office.

The crossing of two hours went rapidly for me, cause I spent most of the time weeping, partly because of joy.

Ali "look, no chains" and I.

When the ferry arrived to Rostock harbour there was an exciting act to happen. Everyone rang their cycle bells when the bow port of the ferry opened. The welcoming committee and other half of the film crew was waiting, filming and waving at the dock. The view was spectacular! All motor vehicles had to wait that the parade of proud library folks had left the ferry. I hopped in Urpo's van and I listened the last farewells for me from the walkie-talkie. A glimpse of the last yellow vests catched my sight outside the harbor area.

Urpo and I navigated to Rostock railway station. I kept telling how wonderful the trip had been and how lucky I was to be able to work with such marvellous persons. We found the station easily. Shaked hands and hugged. Then Urpo was away.

I sat on a bench on the platform and tried to think for the past week, but a humming echo and flickering pictures mixed in my head. Of course an exhaustion also began to demand its tax. On the train to Hamburg I started to rearrange the memories and wrote memories to my notebook.

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof - main railway station- was like I remembered it from my interrail-trip. Crowded, noisy, and like at age of 19 I was busy to catch the connecting train.

At the airport I didn't have the time to eat, so I was eagerly waiting for dinner at the Hamburg-Riga flight. In vain, they didn't serve it on a short flight like that. I bought a sandwich. I also began to be really tired but couldn't get any sleep during transport. The connection at Riga airport to Helsinki was swift, I simply walked from one plane to another and it departured immediately. Again, no food on the plane but it wasn't so important anymore, my head hit the window repatedly cause I tended to fall asleep again and again.

I'm always for, when it comes to workers rights, but this time the Italian strike of luggage personnel at Helsinki Airport caused that I only see the rear lights of my bus to Turku. So I tried to take a nap at the airport lounge. Finally, at 3.50 am I climbed in the bus and after two and half hour ride I was back in my hometown. A short trip with taxi and at 6 am, at home. My cyc4lib was some less than 300 kms and only 25 by bike, but it was a whole trip for me.

I knew already in January that I wouldn't be able to make the whole trip, because of personal reasons. Of course I was sorry not to go all the way to Berlin. But I didn't stop being with the caravan, I kept following the blogposts, links, Kirjastokaistas excellent films, Facebook updates etc. I really admire all of you. It was an honour to work and travel with you.

We did something that never was done before in library world.

 

Tuesday, May 31th

 

Woke up at 4.30. Not tired at all. Funny.

Since I tried to avoid noise and wanted Jonas, Jukka and Mace to continue their sleep I felt like jogging a little. Morning in Nyköbing was kind, a little misty, calm and quite warm. It was nice to run across the streets of a wakening village, throwing glances to beautiful little gardens and pictoresque houses.

When returning to camping area, I met another early bird, it was Lauri who also had taken the chance to enjoy the sunrise.

 Soon after breakfast we packed the kitchen in the van and drove to get groceries for the afternoon coffee etc. The spot for the break was decided to be in a nature center Naturzentrum Halskov Vaenge –or somewhere pretty near.

Navigating was easier day after day so we didn’t drive any extra kilometres when searching the suitable spot. Glittering Baltic Sea, sun, sand, and some shadow from the birches. Excellent place (except the road was pretty narrow so we had to drive the van almost in the woods, and still there wasn’t that much space for drive-by bicycles and occasional cars.

 The sun had done it’s mission, people were hot and sweaty when they arrived so I think at least a dozen of cyclists took the opportunity to swim –no swimsuits, well, it was warm- before coffee.

 

I tried to shepherd everyone from the beach to kitchen van in time, because we had an appointment at Guldborgsund library (which is located in Nyköbing-Falster, I still am confused about these names of municipalities in Denmark). It was also my only chance to ride my bike with the whole group and I wanted to feel the unity and company, which was pretty much the whole idea of this journey.

 Cycling was fantastic! Some tiny paths along the coast, landscape, nice hills –not too steep, it was pure pleasure. Too pity that we only had some 20 – 22 kilometres when we arrived the library downtown Nyköbing.

 The backyard of the library was nice, perhaps it had been a summer theater or whatsoever, it was built like an greek amfi theater –in a half circle.

 In the library we were kindly hosted by Jan Holmquist. We got in to a serious business, thinking and wondering a theme ”how does a perfect library look like in my point of view?”. For an inspiration and a base Jan had matched a Skype call with Buffy J. Hamilton. The main clue in Buffy’s speech was creating the future for libraries in ways of an participatory librarianship (actually, I think that we here in Turku have done quite a bit in that sector).

 

When a not-so-quiet chat of our lovely group had finally ended we made a little briefing about the night and dinner which were to occur in this very same place, people got some time of their own to go and see the town, change clothes, take a long shower etc. (actually we also asked everyone to stay in the backyard for a while to get some group photos but approx. 50% forgot it in a glance…).

 

After a refreshing break of few hours we gathered back in the library, and we were served a dinner made by a Michelin-star chef Claus Meyer. What a joyful evening with full of conversation –it seemed to me that everyone picked a table with not-already-familiar company. Nice. Almost all of us also took part in library tour after dessert. I had a concrete memory from the tour as Bo stamped a date on my forehead.

 It was raining when we cycled back to camping area, but still a non-formal gathering and conversation inspired a couple of dozens in the tent. Rasmus leaded a music library improvement talk,  while a handwrestling competition took place in the other end of the table. If I got it right, the result was Sweden 1 – Finland 0.

 

 

 

Monday, May 30th

Bosei Sports Academy, Prästö

 

5.05 am. A horrible thought cut my sleep. Two bikes are missing. Leena and Susanna will join the cyclists in Rostock and their bikes were taken aboard already in Turku. Where are the bikes? I ended in conclusion that they were left in Copenhagen, at Black Diamond. When I was getting new bike to Yulia, the others had unpacked the trailer and put the bikes among the 10000000000 other bikes by the library. Great. No use trying to get any sleep again.

Rest of the morning was pleasant, the friendly hosts of ours gave us a chance to use the pool before breakfast (sauna was also heated because they had heard there were more than 20 Finns staying overnight…) so splashes and fascinated yells were heard soon after 7.30. Some of us reached more than 500 meters by swimming so it was a nice change for cycling.

 

A diverse breakfast with luxury dishes was welcomed, especially for our kitchen crew, who still got a chance to give their nerves and hands a little rest. The atmosphere of the academy was remarkable in many ways, though it was almost summer and there weren’t many students, the ones we saw were like sculptures from ancient greek athletes.

 

We had the ordinary meeting after breakfast and I told everybody about the two missing bikes. Because I was the most worried one I suggested we’d buy new bikes as replace, but Jukka calmed me down and decided we’d get the bikes from Copenhagen. Urpo and Antti would drive Stara and have the honour to find the bikes. Otherwise meeting was relaxed, cause we started to see that things were quite okay.

 

A former, now retired teacher of the academy kindly but in means of military commands, leaded participants to next passage, a library in Prästö. Urpo wasn’t so happy to drive back to CPH while Antti took it easy. I gave them the keys and descriptions. Tossu, Pasi and I took the course to the lunch spot.

 

                            First we take Mön, then we take Berlin.

                                                                 

                                                          

Once again, Denmark showed us its’ sweet side, being the villages well care taken and the views beautiful with fields, cattle, flowers and sea. We crossed teh old Mön bridge to get to the lunch spot, and the view was, again, breathtaking. The lunch spot was planned to locate in a small camping site, so when I saw a contact sign of the host, I called him. Again, we were pleasantly welcomed and the host promised to open the ice cream stand for us after lunch. Kitchen crew and I took a peek at the beautiful pier (no vehicles were allowed there, which is really understandable) and then we grabbed pots, pans and gas heaters.

Chef is trying to do some groceries... crabs, perhaps?

 

The moment I nearly fell asleep after work done, Jukka called me and asked for help, Yulia and Rasmus had crashed together, and Yulia needed escort to the lunch spot. At first I was scared how badly she was injured, but after some 8 kilometer drive I saw that the situation wasn't that bad. Anyway, after such a shock Yulia, her bike and I drove back to Mön.

 

When Yulia was escorted to have some rest in a shade, my phone rang again. It was Jukka -again- telling that a bee had struck Jonas in the eye... Now I got really scared because Jonas was our paramedic and what happens if paramedic is out of the game. Poor thing. So as an deja-vu I did the rescue trip with van and trailer again -reversing and circling on a narrow road of Danish countryside. Jonas's eye looked really bad and it hurt a lot. We didn't have eyedrops neither, but after some rest for the body and the sight he began to feel a bit better.

After having these accidents somehow solved I ran to the end of the Mön bridge to be guiding the cyclists to the lunch spot. It was a bit dangerous place because they were supposed to cross the road right at the end of the bridge and the motor traffic had quite reasonable speed there -and it was downhill too. It went well anyway at the end while Jukka, Bruce and Mace helped me to stop the traffic.

We had most enjoyable time while having lunch and ice cream in the sun or/and shade.

The accommodation for the two following nights was again something completely else. Mace had booked all the cottagess from  Nyköbing Falster City Camping to us. Pasi, Tossu and I found the camping site and were pleased that groceries could be made near as well (vegetables, milk, meat, bread, etc.).

 

A wonderful reunion! Urpo and Antti had found the bikes from Copenhagen(despite of the descriptions as Urpo said...)! Guys from the meeting/congress/circus/accommodation tent firm had also found their way to camping site and we helped them a bit to get the massive tent erected. And the same procedure continued, kitchengear and dinner preparations. I also learned to know the host of the camping site, he was a nice fellow (what else did you expect?). Once we got clear the regulations of the area I told how overwhelmed I was about everything happened so far during our trip. He seemed (yes yes...) to be very interested.

When the bus had left the cyclists (yes, bus, because there was no accommodation available any nearer a reasonable day passage, so it was a must to do it like this and the cyclists will be transporte back to bikes on the following morning) I had a one-man-show telling them how to make themselves at home.

At Nyköbing we were also accompanied by Jan, being this his hometown. He made a big effort hosting us as a professional-wide eyes-librarian. He is also one of the first ones behind this whole cyc4lib idea.

When the dinner was served it was already dark, but most of us were eager to attend the discussion of the theme of the day in the tent. Amazing how inspiring it was! The theme was about the visibility of the library and the staff ("Escape from the echo chamber") and spontaneously there was six of us (I found myself there as well) sharing experiences about us standing on the line of private and public webperson.

The talk continued nearly to midnight.

Sunday, May 29th

-Ströby school, Ströby Egede-

Woke up 6.30 -yes, and a frightening beeping of a low battery walkie-talkie had already interrupted the sleep of some of us poor devils some three hours earlier.

I went for jogging and to smell the air -the cyclists didn't need anymore rain yet. Saturday had been pretty cold and rainy.

We had a crew talk while having breakfast (Pasi and Tossu were satisfied cause we could use the kitchen class of the school) and we also got valuable tips from Claudia. At 9.30 a briefing was held for all participants, we felt like politicians standing on a stage of the lunch room. Feelings were still expecting, no one didn't yet know how funny and lovely the trip would turn. The number of cyclists increased when Lauri hopped in.

I helped the kitchen crew to do the dishes, Antti, Panu and Ate cleaned the corridors of the school. First noticed forgotten thing: the keys to the school were left in Jukka's pocket, I hope he's mailed them back.

We found -as agreed with Mace- a breathtaking place for coffee break, the Mandehoved nature center. The views were spectacular, but also it was high time to have a pit stop...

 

 

Mace also showed his invention, the Real Eco Coffee Mug

With kind help of Antti's GPS we easily agreed of the place for late lunch/early dinner. Pasi, Tossu and I drove to Store Heddinge to do some groceries. Luckily some stores were open, tho it was Sunday.

We found Vemmetofte Strand to be a really lovely place. The staff in the restaurant kindly gave us gallons of water for the soup when I promised our people would come and get coffee and ice cream at their place. A win-win situation. After erecting the kitchen tent I had the opportunity to cycle back a bit to meet the cyclists. Enjoyable eight kilometres.

Nothing really harmful had occurred during the trip, so everybody got their place in the soup line, some of us, incl. Bo, Sebastian and I went swimming to the shallow but clear water just behind the restaurant and a nice beach of light grey sand.

 

As you can see, the weather wasn't sunny at all yet... but water was warm (as always, in my opinion).

We had a pleasant surprise at the place of accommodation  (Mace is not  _that_ eager to share all information in advance...), I knew it would also be a kind of school, but Bosei Sports Academy was absolutely great. We were welcomed  with extraordinary courtesy by the local sensei. Rooms for two, dinner, showers, pool, etc. It started to rain again when we arrived with the vans, but cyclists didn't get soaking wet this time, and the awareness of having dinner by the table and a decent bed made everybody happy, I guess.

For a pre-happening for the night Ella and Katie hosted an Skype-folksong-contact to Los Angeles before we entered the dinner room.

After an excellent chili con/sin carne -dinner we had the first official unofficial talk. The theme for the day was immigrants in libraries -as patrons, but especially as workers. We talked for good two hours. A minor after party was held in one dorm lounge, including relaxing the muscles and some neck massage, Arto taking initiative there.

Time to sleep.