Aurich. A story about a small German town.

As we’re getting ever so closer to another trip to Germany, I’ve decided to write a thing or two about some of my other trips to that country. Ever since I was little, I listened to stories that my mother was telling us about this small German town called Aurich, and her time spent there. Because I was so young then, it always felt like this town was so far away, that it was on the other side of the world. That was especially the case when my aunt and uncle, who lived there and still do, were on their way to our part of Europe, if I may use that phrase. 😀 I couldn’t understand how it took them so long to get here, and I couldn’t wait for them to arrive, because they always brought some presents with them. Even now I get excited when I know that some “presents” are coming my way (for example, ordering things online and getting them delivered), back then, that was even more so. 😀

First off, for all of you that don’t know where Aurich is, it is located in the North-West of Germany, in the East Frisian region of Lower Saxony, close to the Dutch border and the North Sea. Its population is around 41 850 people, according to Wikipedia’s information from the end of 2017, but from my own experience, I have never had a feeling that that many people actually live there. It is true that I didn’t stay there for such a long period of time, the longest was a month, and I haven’t seen all of the parts of the town, but still. The town itself, unfortunately, has a bit of a dark history tied to it as well, since it had a Nazi concentration camp established there between 21st October, 1944 and 23rd December, 1944. The camp was just a subcamp to the Neuengamme concentration camp, again, an information I got off of Wikipedia.

But enough about history now, that’s not the main focus of this post, and let’s turn the attention to my own experience and view of the city. My first trip to Aurich happened in August 2005, when I was 13 years old. The older of the two cousins living there now, was born then, and it was a perfect occasion to finally make the trip and visit everyone there. At that time, that was the farthest I have ever traveled, so imagine being a 13 year old kid, sitting in a car for 13-14 hours, driving to a place you’ve heard so much about, but never had the chance to go, until then. The excitement was immense, and I will never forget those first few moments when we finally arrived and got out of the car. We spent 2 weeks there that time, and we also visited the North Sea for the first time in my life. Remember, this was mid August, and everyone was telling us that we should wear some warm clothes, take our jackets with us to go to the coast, and all that was so weird to me, like we are still going to the coast, it’s suppose to be warm there. 😀 Anyone who ever went to the North Sea will know what it’s like there, and how wrong I was in thinking that. That day it was pretty hard to stay still in one place due to some powerful winds, and the temperatures were accordingly low because of it.

There were some more memorable moments on the way to Aurich and while staying there, but it would be too long to write all of them. It was always fun to be there, but the most fun I had, was when I was staying with my relatives for a month. I was a bit older since the first time we visited them, I just turned 21 a few months before going, so let’s say I was an adult already, even though most of the time, I still don’t feel like one, even now. 😀 It was fun seeing the town in a little different light than when I went there for the first time, but I don’t think that’s something unusual when you’re growing up and your perception of what’s most interesting to you changes.

The last time, so far, that my family and I went to Aurich was just over 2 years ago. It was probably one of the most memorable weeks, as I was having so much fun then! One of my biggest wishes was to go to the North Sea again, even though it wasn’t in our plans at first, I managed to persuade everyone so that we went anyway! 😀 As mentioned before, the winds at the North Sea are blowing almost all the time, that’s why pretty much anywhere you look, you can see fields full of wind turbines, which was another fascinating thing for me when I first saw them. Slovenia only has one of those turbines, if I’m not mistaken, and it was put up quite recently, so I haven’t had the chance to see that in person before going to the North Sea.

Even the drives to Aurich have always been fun, no matter how long they took and how much I had to say against that at the time. When you look at it, it’s really a great thing to drive pretty much across the whole country, even though you don’t really see a lot of things from the Autobahn. One of the most memorable things that we did get to see was Allianz Arena in Munich, which is the stadium that Bayern Munich plays their home games at.

So, this upcoming trip to Germany won’t include a visit of Aurich, unfortunately, but I’m sure that I’ll make it back there some time soon again! 🙂