Actually Jena does not look like the wild North. But at one moment it did. Let me start from the very beginning.
Lobeda was almost a city during Medieval - it had appropriate rights and a duke, who was very rich. But in the 14th century something went wrong and Lobeda became a district of Jena. It is still the same. There is one thing which reminds us of it.
Lobdeburg is a castle located within Jena. It is possible to get there, to the top of the mountain, on foot. So did I.
I would say that this place is really sad. The castle ruins have not been restored and you can see empty windows instead of Rosamund waiting for her knight on the balcony. This is a mix of times. On the one hand this is the land of knights and kings. On the other hand, you can see windmills and many-storied houses surrounding the mountain now. It looks like the time stopped here destroyed by feudal wars.
There is a poem by Heinrich Heine about a pine tree which is alone and thinks of a palm somewhere in a warm land. It seems to me that I could see it near the castle:
In the wild North a pine tree stands alone
On the bare top of the mountain.
It slumbers and sways, covered with
Powdery snow like a mantle.
And it dreams constantly: that in faraway wilds
In the land where the sun rises,
A cheerless and lovely palm stands alone,
Growing on a gloomy cliff.
*translated by Dmitri N. Smirnov
On my way down I saw vineyards. Snow almost melted away so I could see something near my foot. It was a shell. There were no any rivers and sees near Jena but probably it was left by a Burgundy snail. I took it with me and the shell still reminds me of that short trip. Someone says - if you take a shell with you, you will come back to that place. I hope that I will.
