“Paderborn is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and “born”, an old German term for the source of a river.”
– Wikipedia, Captain Obvious
It’s kinda funny that I had never been to Berlin before this trip, but I’d been to Mannheim, Heidelberg and other small places no one else ever went to. I decided to follow that up by visiting Paderborn…
To be honest, the reason I ended in Paderborn, Münster and Siddinghausen was because that’s where my adopted German friends from my Tanzania trip are living. I wanted to visit them, so after a short stop in Cologne, I spent a little week in Paderborn, a weekend in Münster and a weekend in Siddinghausen (catching the Schützenfest… more on that here).
My first stop after Berlin, however, was Cologne. I spotted that Demi Lovato had a concert going on and she was in Germany at the same time as I was there. “Opportunity too good to pass up!”, I thought… Until Deutsche Ticketmaster decided I wasn’t German enough to buy tickets 😛
I could buy tickets, but only have them sent to an address in Germany, Netherlands or Austria. OR have them sent elsewhere for the “low extra cost” of 40 euros (which is pretty much what the tickets cost in the first place)… Or I could maybe buy them and have them sent to a German friend? No, because the payment system wouldn’t accept a different billing address to delivery address so my VISA wouldn’t accept the system’s address requirements… gah!
I promptly sent my friend a message complaining about the German Ticketmaster system and told him he had to move to another country.
He responded with buying two tickets to the concert and meeting me in Cologne. 🙂
So I “dragged” Panos to a Demi Lovato concert (you didn’t have to come, I’m just saying) – and he knew exactly one song, the only one I didn’t know… it was hilarious. I also learned the importance of a good “schaumkrone” on beer (the white cap, foam on top). We ended with some beers and a pizza watching the drunks meander along the river before driving to Paderborn the next day. It was a good night.
DEMI LOVATO – TELL ME YOU LOVE ME TOUR
In Paderborn I found out that Panos is a typical guy with regards to interior decorating
Why add pictures to the frames when you can just hang them in a neat way? #Efficiency
While my police pal was out working I had ample time to explore Paderborn. Panos said I would need two hours, he was wrong. Paderborn is big enough to warrant at least three.
I checked out Paderborn Cathedral (Paderborner Dom) with its famous “Drei-Hasen-Fenster”. Had to read up a bit before going, I knew nothing about Paderborn… for obvious reasons.
PADERBORN CATHEDRAL
“The cathedral is located in the city centre of Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is dedicated to Saint Mary, Saint Kilian and Saint Liborius. The relics of Saint Liborius are kept in the three-aisled crypt, which is one of Germany’s largest crypts (32 meters). Towards the west are the tombs of the Archbishops of Paderborn. An antechamber features a 1935 mosaic on the walls and ceiling and in the centre of the floor the tombstone for Bishop Meinwerk, dating to the 13th century”
It was a beautiful place, only marred by the jet black Porsche parked on the outside with hot pink rims 😛 And the drunk guy who came in and started screaming at people about five minutes after I entered the church… Fun times… But besides that I really enjoyed my time here.
I also found out Paderborn has awesome hairdressers and a tourist information center(!) (Like… why?) I managed to get a drop in with Denise who cut and styled my hair from a hopeless mess to something worthy of a glossy magazine. Just in time for the wedding in Greece 🙂
MÜNSTER
I kinda had to tag along and join my driver/host’s plans for the weekend so I ended up spending two days in Münster… another jewel of Germany…
We spent two days at his friends’ apartment and I as told we would have dinner, some beers and play a game called something to do with Hitler. Yes, that Hitler.
Turned out it’s a game called “Secret Hitler” where you’re either a fascist or a liberal and one of you is Hitler and then you need to figure out who is who. I figured “Sure, why not… Go to Germany, play a game where you can end up being Adolf Hitler. Totally natural.”
Charly ended up being Hitler four times. I think the game was trying to tell us something. It was super fun though, I recommend it 😉
(Also, there was football, Germany played UAE, but the Germans left the TV room as soon as dinner was ready, and the game wasn’t even over. I don’t know what’s wrong with them, there was 10 minutes left of overtime, dinner couldn’t wait??)
The next day we had dinner and drinks in town, I met Georgina from Barcelona – she pretty much has one of my dream jobs – journalist working with the United Nations… So needless to say I spent the evening talking to her about everything under the sun.
On our way home from drinks and chats there was a seriously drunk woman, feeling and being sick on the bus. Leo gave her his seat, because he is such a gentleman… at least that’s what we thought. Turns out he just wanted her to sit next to Jonas because that makes Jonas really sick.
Good guy Leo 😛
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