MAR-GOES

I hope you all haven’t forgotten about me and my little blog! I have been home for 2 months and summer has absolutely been flying by. I cannot even believe it’s already been 2 months since my big adventure. I am so grateful to be back in America, but I do miss the crazy, traveling lifestyle that Europe gave me. Now, let me test your memory… if you read my last blog about Edinburgh and London, you may recall me talking about a big thing I did in London. So big that I was going to save it for its own post. Well here is the post, finally! I know I know, now that I’m back home, working a day job, and being boring… you might not be interested in my travels. I know that some of you might also think to yourselves, “what the heck, she was so excited about this??” And that is ok! I just have too much to say about this, it needed its own posting. Now if you know me you won’t be surprised about this. The topic of this blog is: HARRY POTTER.

Quick note: while I know not everyone is into Harry Potter, I even know people who hate it… you CAN NOT deny the time and talent put into this franchise. I hope everyone can at least appreciate the effort that endless amounts of people put into making Harry Potter what it is now. Now, with that being said, I will continue.

When Greg was being stubborn over not going to London since we have both been before, I knew what I could suggest to sway him. In December, I FINALLY made Greg watch the whole Harry Potter series… he fell asleep during the 1^st movie THREE separate times. I kept pushing him to finish it and when he did, he immediately wanted to watch the second movie. I knew it would happen, just had to get him through the first movie. (How one can even fall asleep during a HP movie is beyond me.) However, we finished the series in about 2 weeks during our holiday break. He loved them, obviously. Greg is also very into film (check out gregbresnan.com, I got you Greg), so I had a strong feeling that he’d be into my suggestion. When I suggested the Warner Bros Studio Tour in London, he immediately was interested… what can I say? I know the man. Anyways, a little bit more persuading later, and I was on the website looking for tickets. Just my luck, they were sold out for the weekend we were planning on going. This place sells out months in advance. I was panicking! This was definitely my one shot to go since I knew I wouldn’t get Greg back to London for a decent amount of time. I frantically searched the web for any answers on how to get tickets. A few Tripadvisor threads later and I located a tour group that is officially partnered with the studio. (Major shoutout to Golden Tours, they pulled through when I was desperate.) I went on their website and they had about 4 tickets left for the day we could go. They are a bus company that takes people from around England to the tour, so we had to technically pay for transportation from a small English town. We (Greg, my personal phone caller) quickly called them and explained our situation. They let us buy the tickets, set up a plan to meet us outside with the tickets, and not use their transportation. We did have to pay about twice as much as we would’ve directly through the studio’s website, but clearly I didn’t care. I was so happy to have received that confirmation e-mail… I knew I was going to see where Harry Potter came to life.

The trip finally came and it was amazing leading up to the tour. Edinburgh was probably my favorite city I visited. You can/already have read all about this in my previous blog.

In Edinburgh, I was excited to realize that my little “Harry Potter trip” was found there as well. J.K Rowling actually wrote some of the books in Edinburgh. She wrote them in a little café called the Elephant House. She would sit at a table by a window that looked out to Edinburgh Castle. We waited in a short line and had some coffee in the room that she sat in to write the books that would become so much. This café is now famous for this reason. They have a first edition signed Sorcerer’s Stone on display. The bathrooms are completely covered by fellow fans in Harry Potter quotes. It is quite nice to see the place where it all started honor Rowling and the series.

Not only did the café overlook the castle, but also a graveyard said to have inspired the grave yard scene in the 4^th book and movie. We headed down to the graveyard and located the real Thomas Riddle’s grave.

Lastly, we found the shop that Rowling based the Weasley’s joke shop on.

Edinburgh had a lot of neat, authentic Harry Potter surprises, but the big treat was in London.

We woke up in London and set off to find the studios. They are about an hour outside of London so we took a train and a bus to get there. The bus we got on from the train station was a double decker, Harry Potter decorated bus. They played a short video on Harry Potter and what we were about to see at the tour. I was already feeling emotional about it. (You guys are getting to witness the #1 thing I nerd out about! Lucky you.) When we got to the studios we waited for our tickets and it was a success. The tickets were in our hands and we were headed in. When you walk in, there are head shots of all of the main characters lining the wall.

We had some time to pass so we ate at the café and then got in line. The line was huge. There were so many people there. I will say that this place knew what they were doing. When I first saw the line I thought, “ugh this is going to be one of those tours where you are shoulder to shoulder with everyone around you, thus not getting full view of everything.” After the line they led a group of us into a theater. We watched a very well done video of all of the highlights from every movie. (This was to break up groups to avoid mass crowding in the tour). Of course I sat in the very front of the theater because I read about it before I got there. When the video was done, the screen went up, and doors were revealed. They had us come forward and they opened the doors. (This is why I sat in the front, I got the first view.) There were a bunch of little kids all around that probably couldn’t see but you know what, I was selfish and that’s how you have to be in this world sometimes. I’m kidding, I’m kidding, but I actually did make sure I was front and center for the grand door opening. When they opened the doors the great hall stood there in all it’s glory.

They gave us a little speech in the great hall and then the rest of the tour was free walking. Now I am not going to continuing describing the tour in detail because I took pictures of everything. Also because I would start going off topic about things that 90% of you don’t care about. If you are a Harry Potter fan and want to know every detail, let me know, I will spare the rest of you. There were never too many people in any part of the tour. It was so well organized for crowd control. I was extremely impressed because I really got to see everything, take good pictures, and take my time.

I am going to attach a good amount of pictures now and I will do my best to describe each picture in it’s caption. The rest of this blog is up to you! Just look at the pics, read all of the captions, google more on things I post, or just stop reading now. (Although, I don’t suggest the last option, you’d miss my wonderful photography.)

Important: All props, sets, and clothing were actually used and worn by the actors in the movies. This was the coolest part… everything was used when filming. (Very cool to see in person what was used and to follow the footsteps of the actors and production team.)

I have more pictures for those interested, also on my Facebook I have a Harry Potter Studio Tour album. This tour had so many interesting things, this blog would be 100 pages long if I included everything.

There was an extremely extensive gift shop at the end of the shop. I knew that I had to exercise self control. I bought a cool Deathly Hallows shirt, a program, and a few postcards.

This really was an amazing tour. I was so happy to have been able to go. Thanks to Greg for agreeing to go with me. Also always thanks to my parents for the fun financials that let me do all of these things.

Since being home, I, of course, I have watched the movies several times. It is so neat to actually recognize where parts of the movies were filmed.

Speaking of being home, I have finally settled back into reality. Summer has been great. Greg was sent out to Seattle, WA to intern at Amazon!! I miss him but am so proud and excited for him and the potential opportunities this has and will bring to him. I do have a few more Europe blogs to finish up. I am also thinking of finding other ways to continue blogging, despite my recent hiatus, I do enjoy writing these little things for you guys.

I hope you are all well & I hope you continue to read my blogs. Thanks for putting up with my inner nerd for this post. And lastly, I apologize for the wait.

xx