Ciao!

Welcome to version 2.0 of my nerd blog. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about all the magical woes and triumphs of living abroad (check it out here) and today I’m going to let you guys know about my MAGICAL spring break experience! Like I mentioned last week in my tips for traveling the world blog, I had the opportunity to see some pretty cool places including Swansea, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Antwerp. I did a lot of traveling, saw a lot of sites, and got to do a ton of really sweet activities, but nothing compares to what I got to experience in London. If you’ve forgotten how much love I have for Harry Potter, I encourage you to go back and read my first nerd post, but just in case you’re too lazy to do that I’m going to go ahead and remind you right now.

THIS SERIES. I literally grew up with Harry Potter which essentially defines my undying love for anything and everything HP. So when I found out there was a Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London and tickets were only about €27 I just about DIED. I immediately bought my ticket online and waited patiently for the day to come. Once I got to London and it was time to go to the studio, my equally nerdy roommate and I seriously could not contain our excitement. We were immediately reverted back into children and it was AWESOME. So we got our booties on the double decker Harry Potter bus and were delivered directly to the studio.

Excited is an understatement.

Okay, so I’m skipping over all of the line waiting, ticket retrieving, etc. because nobody likes doing it in real life and I’m sure as hell nobody likes to hear about it via blog either.

SO

WE’RE IN THE STUDIO. My heart is melting because there are tribute photos to all the cast members hung up on the walls, the score for all the movies is playing in the background, and I could see my first glimpse of the many sets we were going to experience that day… the cupboard under the stairs. So many emotions. So we’re waiting in line to get into the main studios and this guy drops to a knee and whips out a Harry Potter proposal to his girlfriend. Um did my heart swell? YES. Did I cry and jump for joy for this woman? DOUBLE YES. Did I wish that was me? YES. EMOTIONS FLYING EVERYWHERE. Like I wasnt going to cry on this stupid tour already, they just had to start my waterworks two minutes after I walked in the door. Sheesh. I tell ya.

So we finally entered the studios, we’re watching a short flick on the overall making of the films and then all of a sudden we are standing at the doors to the great hall. Did I cry again? Yes. Am I crying while writing this blog post and re-living my experience? Yes I am. (My life is ridiculous) Anyway I AM STANDING IN THE GREAT HALL. Mollie and I are so excited to be IN the set that I think we were both about to spontaneously combust and that was just the beginning. Throughout this self-guided tour you got to see all the sets from all 8 movies, every costume, wig, creature, and prop ever used. It was the most incredible thing if you’re an HP freak like me and the best part was that you were surrounded by other HP freaks and there was just this mutual understanding of nerd-dom and it was AWESOME.

I’m not going to give you a play-by-play of my entire day because that’s lame (GO SEE IT YOURSELF) but I will tell you some of my favorites.

1. The Great Hall. It was the perfect thing to open the tour with because I just stood there with my mouth hanging open like an idiot in awe of its beauty and then almost blew up from excitement.

2. The chocolate feast from the Yule Ball. Mostly because I’m a fat kid.

3. Butterbeer. Also because I’m a fat kid.

IS THAT A BUTTERBEER MUSTACHE?!?

4. Diagon Alley. It was like living the movies. You could walk through the set, see all the shops and windows, and pretend you were a wizard. Coolest thing EVER.

5. The Art. Okay so this is where I let another one of my freak flags fly… I’m a Graphic design/Photography major who just happens to enjoy dabbling in a couple paintings in my spare time and there were two things that completely made me go all art kid geeky. One of those were the sheer amount of oil paintings that were hand painted for every film. Picture the halls of the castle, the stairways, every office, every bedroom… someone painted ALL OF THOSE AND THEY WERE ALL ON DISPLAY. Holy. Crap. The second freaky art kid moment I had was in front of the collection of graphic design materials. They had every label, letter, package, newspaper, magazine, and ticket ever printed for the movies. It was a graphic designers dream and I spent wayyyyy too long standing in front of it.

Picture 1 of 30 of the Graphic Design Case… I’ll spare you the rest.

6. The Hogwarts Castle Model. Okay so this is where I lost my shit. This freaking model TOOK MY BREATH AWAY. Its the replica of the castle that they use during all the sweeping shots of the castle in all eight films. It was phenomenal. The lighting, the music, everything was perfection. Then I started sobbing into my camera lens as I took a million photos of this thing. Unreal.

LOOK AT THIS THING.

So basically if you’re a Harry Potter lover and end up in London GO TOUR THE STUDIO. It will change your LIFE!  The studio tour was not the only HP I got in on that day though.. my hostel in London was right next to King’s Cross Station so obviously I had to go and get my picture taken with Platform 9 3/4!!

Cheesin’ so hard.

Just to give you guys an inkling of the extent of my love, I took 587 photos at this tour. FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY SEVEN. Needless to say, it was rather difficult picking the photos for this ridiculous blog post. But lets all be thankful, because I could rant about Harry Potter FOR DAYS. Have a magical week everybody!

 

If you’re interested in the tour, you can follow the link here to order your tickets online!! You wont regret it!

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