Bloggers do Hogwarts (part two)

Where did I leave off?

Ah yes, pretty sure I was on the Knight Bus heading to Privet Drive ;)

After the first leg of the tour you might think it couldn't get any better. Had I mentioned it was Animal Actors Week? No? Well, it was. You may have noticed the giant Mastiff in Bloggers do Hogwarts (part one). It gets even more exciting..

I met Hedwig. And yes, while the Mastiff I saw wasn't actually IN the Harry Potter movies, the owl I took a picture with absolutely was.
So, basically, me and Daniel Radcliffe are dating. Or something? Six degrees of Daniel Radcliffe?

We took turns knocking on number 4 Privet Drive, admired the giant chess pieces from the Philosopher's Stone and then headed inside to the second part of the tour.

The first part brings you into a room full of prosthetics, props and full and scaled down size models of the cast, including poor little Dobby with his eyes closed. A giant blow-up Marge hung from the ceiling and Aragog was looming over the Basilisk skeleton. (If you're not a Potter fan you may be a bit lost with all my name dropping right about now).

Then you round the corner into none other than Diagon Alley. Bustling with people, we saw Crookshanks the smooshed-faced cat, we peeked into shop windows and we wished we could stay there forever. Finally we came to the grand finale, the giant Hogwarts model they used throughout the films.

Thank you so much to Warner Brothers for this amazing day (and my amazing goody bag, hi stuffed Fang and peppermint toads!), and thanks to all the girls who made it that much more exciting! And to anyone who is a massive Harry Potter fan, GO. Seriously, go to the studio tour. It's so worth it.

Bloggers do Hogwarts (part one)

This weekend past was a BUSY one. Friday night I had a night out with my roommates, Saturday afternoon I met my friend Anna who was visiting from Paris for brunch at The Book Club, and Saturday night I took the train to Essex to visit old friends in Harlow.

Waking up Sunday I have to admit I wasn't in tip top shape, but my excitement to meet a bunch of lovely bloggers and, obviously, to spend the day immersed in full on Harry Potter magic was fuel enough to keep me going.

After randomly running into my first year acting professor on the train and catching up with him for an hour or so, I made it just in the nick of time to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, who so kindly hosted a group of ten of us bloggers and tweeters (I'll link everyone up below!). The wonderful Jenny arranged it all for us - I remember getting a tweet about it months ago and can't believe it's actually happened! Blogging is insane. These are girls I never would have met were it not for this little ol blog. ANYWAYS. Back to Harry.

 We collected our goody bags (Ridiculously generous, Warner Brothers!), and made our way into the magic.

I visited the Studios last time I was in England (posted on the semi-forgotten travel blog I kept then, Wanderlust), and I can honestly say I was equally as excited for and in awe of everything as much on Sunday as I was two years ago.

From wandering into the Great Hall, seeing the floating candles hanging from the ceiling, staring wide-eyed at Dumbledore's office and the scarf that was knitting itself in the Weasley's kitchen.. I was basically a kid again running around from prop to prop, set to set.

The amount of detail that went into these films is incredible. And being in the Studio just reinforces the amount of time, effort and love poured into them. Hand drawn labels for over eight hundred vials in Dumbledore's office. Frescoes in the Great Hall that faded so much over the filming you can't even see them in all of the movies. The multiple cat pins and broaches on Umbridge's shockingly pink wardrobe.
I could gush all day.

Instead, I'm splitting my trip into two posts because let's be real, can there ever be too much Harry Potter on the internet?


The lovely ladies I experienced this with:
Charlotte (The Tea Drinking English Rose)
Alice (The Cup and Saucer)
Bess (Thoroughly English)
Jenny (Sunny Sweet Pea)
Emma (Stripes and Snapshots)
Sarah (@sarangacomics)
Sophie (Sophie in the Sticks)
Hazel (Hazel's World of Joy)
Beth (@missbw1505)