Week 9 - Harry Potter overload

I will keep the beginning of this post short, because this weekend was my big trip to London to go on the Harry Potter studio tour. As exciting as classes are, I think we all would rather hear about Harry Potter. I did not have any classes Monday due to a bank holiday, so Tuesday was the real start of my week. Before my trip to Killarney I had signed up to be a part of the International Society's book club. This week was our first meeting, and I finally found out what we were reading. The novel is called The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan and was published in 2012. There are about five people in the club, but this week only myself and the leader, Nancy, showed up. We got some hot chocolate from Scholar's (the other bar on campus that I had yet to be inside) and started talking. Nancy is in her final year of school here and is originally for Galway (the place that I visited two weeks ago). We both share a love of books and have quite a few things in common. At one point in the conversation she grabbed a piece of paper and decided to draw me a map of places in Galway I needed to visit if I ever go back. On the other side she drew a few good eating destinations in Limerick (at my request). That side is the scribbled map that is in the picture.

My music tutorial is getting much more difficult as we progress. I should quickly note that I continue to call the music that we learn "songs". It turns out that a song has lyrics while a tune is just instrumental, so it would be better to say "tune". It is good that I am being properly educated in musical lingo as to not sound foolish to my old band friends. Anyways, I say that the music is becoming trickier, because we have begun to incorporate things like "cuts" in order to make the song more flashy and sound better. A "cut" is when there are two of the same note in a row, and you lift one of your fingers quickly in order to make a nice little break between the sounds. If you listen closely in the video you may be able to hear a few cuts. There is one between the second and third note right at the start of the tune.

 Thursday night I watched some Halloween movies with the girls I was going to London with right up until our bus came at two in the morning. There were four other girls with me including my roommate Stephanie and our friends Jill, Kaitlyn, and Monica. We had been planning this trip since I believe week three, so we were all excited as could be to head to London. I was the only one who had not been there before, so they made sure to take me to a few of the iconic and historical places. Once we had dropped off our bags at our hostel near Baker Street (any Sherlock Holmes fans?) we headed to the underground train to see some of the things that London had to offer. We immediately headed to Kings Cross to get a picture on Platform Nine and Three Quarters and then made our way to the River Thames. Right away I was able to experience the breath-taking view of Big Ben and the London Eye. The five of us bought tickets to enter the London Eye, which was about a 30 minute ride. It was nice, but obviously the places was packed because of all of the tourists. After the ride we headed past the Parliament building to get a glimpse of Westminster Abbey. They charge admission to see the inside of the Abbey, but a little known secret is that the church has night services open to the public that are free, and that is exactly what the five of us decided to attend. The inside was filled with a variety of marble statues that were beautiful and a bit overwhelming. The service itself was a Catholic one, which was different for me, but it was easy to follow along because they had all of the repetition and lyrics written down in a bulletin. The priest surprised us all by quoting The Hobbit during the sermon. They did have communion, but we had the option of abstaining from it which is what I did in order to be respectful. Although it was only six in the evening, it was already dark out and all of us were tired so we headed back to our hostel. It actually was a hostel that was sitting above a bar, and the bar owned it. That night was Halloween, so they were having some specials and Halloween karaoke. We went downstairs for a bit to check it out, but we didn't stay long and headed to bed shortly after.

 Day two began with a train ride and walk through Green Park to get to Buckingham Palace. We arrived just as they did the ceremony for the changing of the guards, but we were not close enough to see anything. The Union Jack (the British flag) was flying that day, which meant that the queen was not home. After many a picture was taken we headed to Hyde Park to see what it was like, and it was gorgeous. It reminded me of a mix between Central Park in New York and Frederik Meijer Gardens. There were sculptures and flowers everywhere. We next head to Chipotle for a quick lunch, and then headed to our bus stop for the Warner Brothers studio tour!

 It turns out that when we were booking tickets for the tour they sold out of one time slot halfway through, so we were split up into two groups. My group consisted of Stephanie and Kaitlyn, and our bus arrived an hour later at about 3:15 p.m. I should mention now that this is the studio where they actually filmed the majority of the Harry Potter films. All of the things inside are the real deal, which made this tour all the more special and magical. The studio was massive, and once our time slot to enter started, they shuffled us into a room where there were posters of the Harry Potter movies from different countries along the walls. After this room we sat in a theatre where we got an inside look into the making of the film with Daniel, Rupert, and Emma. Did you know that it took ten years to make all of the films?! These actors literally grew up in the studio. Finally, the screen lifted and we entered the Great Hall! They had one table spread with the Halloween feast from the first film, and scattered around the room were some uniforms and articles of clothing from each of the houses. This included things like Draco's fourth year robe and Harry's first year robe. At the front of the room were some of the professors, and the headmaster.

After the Great Hall was a self-guided tour that had a variety of scenes, rooms, and props spread out throughout the warehouse. These included the Yule Ball, the Boys' Dormitories, the Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore's Office, the Burrow, Hagrid's Hut, a few classrooms inside Hogwarts, The Ministry of Magic, and so much more. My favorite parts were the cases that had some important props held in them such as all of the horcruxes, all of the wands, and a case with things like the Deluminator and the Philosopher's Stone (known as the Sorcerer's Stone in the US). They also had a brand new section of the tour called "Dark Arts." It ended up being the table where the followers of Voldemort met to discuss taking over the Ministry of Magic and the fate of Harry Potter in the seventh film. They even had the snake included and the professor of Muggle studies floating above the table.

This concluded the first part of the tour, and the next part was in an outdoor section knows at the Backlot. This is where you could get Butterbeer and see a few of the outside sets such as the Hogwarts Bridge, the Knight Bus, the Potter's cottage, and the Dursley home. There were also maps of all of the places around the United Kingdom and London where the some scenes from the film were shot such as the Millenium Bridge.

 The next part of the tour took us through the creature station that explained all of the animatronics and creating some of these creatures. They had things like the Basilisk, Aragog, Dobby, Hedwig, Mandraks, the Monster book of Monsters, and Buckbeak. Some of these, including Buckbeak, were able to move.

 After the creatures portion was a walk down Diagon Alley. Apparently, during filming they would dress up some of the stores and turn them into Hogsmeade. The major shops that were shown were Gringotts, Ollivanders, and the Weasley brothers' joke shop. A quick fact about the wands in Ollivanders is that there are about 17,000 boxes and they are each individually labeled. While I was in Diagon Alley I ran into a Death Eater. Slightly terrifying as you can imagine, but they don't mind if you take a picture with them. They are not particularly talkative.

After Diagon Alley was a section with paper models of the sets and concept art. The walls were filled with different paintings and sketches of what would some day become a reality. In this portion we found the Marauder's Map, some newspapers, and the Quibbler. In the final section of the tour was the actual constructed model of Hogwarts that was used to film long shots of the grounds and aerial views. Now I can officially say that I have been to Hogwarts!

The very last room was filled with wand boxes that were dedicated to every cast and crew member that worked on the Harry Potter films. There were approximately 400,000 boxes lining the walls. I was able to find Christopher Columbus' box (a director and producer) and Tom Felton's box (Draco Malfoy). After the three hour tour was done we entered a merchandise shop that was absolutely massive. There were even more props from the films lining the walls, like Krum's posters from the fourth movie. My favorite souvenirs that could be purchased were the wands of several characters and a piece of the original reel of film of one of the movies. The souvenir that Stephanie, Kaitlyn, and I all got was a picture of us wearing robes and looking Sirius... Okay, bad puns are bad. We named ourselves the "Slytherin Sisters," and it is one of my favorite things that I have gotten so far.


Due to an early flight we ended up heading back to the hostel after the tour and went to bed as soon as possible. We then took the trip back to Ireland starting at four a.m. on Sunday by plane, train, automobile, and bus. It was actually a relief to get back to Ireland. Like I have said in the past I consider this place my second home now, so getting back to it feels wonderful. I am very happy that I was able to make this trip with the girls, and to add London to my small list of places that I have gone.

Fun Facts! (Harry Potter Edition):

#1: Most of the animal actors in the films were rescued. There are nine Fangs, four Hedwigs, four Crookshanks, and twelve Scabbers. The producers prefered to use real animals as opposed to animatronic ones.

#2: The Ministry of Magic sets were the most extensive and required the most extras. A lot of times the extras were crew members in cloaks, beards, and hats.

#3: Aragog (the giant disgusting spider) required about one hundred technicians to operate. 

#4: Butterbeer is only served in three places in the world. The first is at Orlando Studios in Florida, the second is at Warner Brothers Studio in London, and the last is in Japan. I have already had it at two of these places, although they were very different consistencies and flavors.

#5: A quote from J.K. Rowling that will stick with all of us Harry Potter fans: "The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or by screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."