Next Stop on Spring Break: LONDON

To start off the trip, on the train someone asked if we were on Next Top Model. My self esteem went through the roof. Which is really funny because due to Italy’s fabulous production of gelato, wine, pizza, and chocolate I am actually the largest I probably have ever been. But anyways, here is London through the eyes of a “Top Model”.

Well it took over an hour in line at border control/customs , it was by far the most extensive background check I have had yet. We stayed with the aunt and uncle of Ayanna, friend I am traveling with for spring break, in Norwich, UK. Norwich is a 3 hour bus ride from the airport but 2 hour train ride from the city . I slept through the whole 3 hour bus ride, woke up occasionally and the scenery was exactly what I had seen in Harry Potter, rolling green fields and tiny little towns with tiny little houses and little cars. Her uncle picked us up from the bus from the airport in his town in Norwich, took us to his cute apartment where his loving wife had prepared us a traditional Nigerian dinner of chicken and rice and fried plantains which is like fried bananas with sugar.

We sat around with them and talked and watched the Manchester vs. Barcelona soccer game, which is funny because we had just come from there. “Uncle” had her call her mom and grandma and aunts which was fun to see them all talk together and kind of get together as a family. “Auntie” kept making me tea, which was so nice because I’ve had a very frightening cough due to the Italian winters – that are a lot colder than you would expect because they don’t really use heating so going outside is pretty similar to being inside. (Sorry for the awful run-on sentence) Doesn’t make a difference where you are. I wear a north face and several layers to bed at night.

Wednesday morning we woke up to head to Wartford for Harry Potter World/ Warner Brothers Studios, which we had tickets to, and were greeted by eggs, toast, baked beans, and sausage. This was one of my best experiences in Europe because it was so generous and homey. As soon as I sat down, her aunt handed me another cup of tea and had another one already in a thermos for me to travel with that morning, one of the kindest things and people I have ever met. Her uncle brought us to the train station to head into Wartford to geek out on J.K. Rowling’s dynasty. Round trip was 59£ for the journey there and back during off time hours – rush hours are from 5 am to 9 am. These are even more expensive because some people commute into the city for work, and the railways take advantage of this and it therefore costs more. We also had tickets to a double decker bus tour in London the next day and bought another set of round trip tickets which were 42£ – cheaper because we bought them ahead of time. They said these can cost only about 16 £ if you purchase them a couple days ahead of time. But I didn’t mind because we were staying with her family for no cost, and served several meals there which saved us a significant amount. Her aunt also packed us lunch and snacks for the day; which was extremely kind and funny because she loaded up this huge bag that I was carrying around the train station which seemed to be my luggage because of how heavy it got.

The one thing that bugged be about London: everyone is very health conscious. Which made me self conscious. There are ads for gyms everywhere and an extremely large amount of people all running around in packs, literally, and wearing the sportiest gear I have ever seen. I kept eating tuna or chicken sandwiches here and felt much healthier than my travels so far in Spain, France, and Italy.

Harry Potter World

Warner Brothers Studios is in Wartford, which seems to be about an hour outside London if you take trains due to switching trains twice to get there. Warner Bros. has a shuttle from the Wartford junction station for a round trip of 2£ to and from the studios which I found to be well worth it. As a heads up, you cannot purchase tickets on location. You MUST prepay ahead of time. You can have tickets mailed to you for an additional charge, or pick up at arrival which is what we did and for free! When you purchase tickets online, you have to pick a time for arrival. They say you have to get there within 15 minutes of that time or you will have issues entering – we arrived an hour later than our purchased time slot and there was no problem at all, people check tickets at several stops and never said anything about ours . Also it was PACKED, even though it was a Wednesday afternoon in February – so I would look out for only early or later times if you plan on going during usual vacation times like around holidays or summer.

The studios itself are much more of a museum, completely different from Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Orlando which I went to about 3 years ago. This place is filled with all the sets, costumes, and props for the actual movies; and therefore there is not nearly as large as an interactive component as in Florida. There are no rides, and only one time you sit down and watch an introductory video in a large audience; which reminded me of It’s a Bug’s Life in Animal Kingdom Disney World without the 3D effects and bugs stinging your chair.

That being said, I think this place is much more for teenagers and adults than for kids. Lots of things are for viewing only, behind ropes and glass cases and therefore to be seen and not touched . I know my siblings and I would have had a problem with that in our childhoods, but I think we would be much suited for this type of attraction in our late teenage years an early 20s. Therefore it is called a tour of the studios and rightfully so – it was definitely amazing to see the golden snitch, goblet of fire, Dumbledore’s office, potions class, Great Hall, and lots more in person but I would have loved a bit more to interact with or do per se.

I don’t want to talk that much about it, and spoil the experience for those of you who plan on going on your own. There are lots of things I found astounding that I didn’t take pictures of on purpose so that I could just experience the moment. Photography didn’t give the being the credit it deserved, and to do it justice I want you to go there and see it for yourself. What I found the most amazing was the amount of special and visual effects used in the movies. Scenes where Harry and Ron and Hermoine just walk around a town or in a forest, which I thought were real places, they filmed at were all actually just green screens the actors acted infront of. And the scenery, as simple as a street in an empty town, was all artificially created. I obviously knew the brooms and dragons flying around couldn’t be real but from what I was told at the studios, it seemed as though most of the movie was made from scratch in literally every sense. And it gave me not only for the effects crews, but the actors themselves. I think it is so hard to act with an empty space, unable to interact with anything and basically have to do lots of improv or however you are able to act for the majority of a movie infront of a green screen and no environment to work with at all.

London Itself

We went to London on Thursday and it was kind of actually a nightmare. Due to being so far out, we didn’t get into the city until noon. And then it took us almost 2 whole hours to find our tour bus we had already reserved seats on the week before. I do not recommend doing that. I definitely think you should do a double decker bus tour of as many cities as you can visit – I have done one for almost all the major cities I have been in: Barcelona, Rome, London, and Paris. But for London I suggest that you walk around a bit and get a feel for the bus companies that seem to have the most buses out and about. I would choose that route, do not prepay before going. And it was also pouring rain, and I mean cats and dogs. It was almost hurricane conditions if you ask me. It was so cold and poured for hours with a lot of wind. There was one hour that it let up to a drizzle and we were by Buckingham Palace. So we jumped off there and took a few pictures and grabbed coffee. We didn’t really get to do anything else because the rain started back up and we only had a few more hours before we had to take a train back to Norwich. I saw London Bridge from afar, and you can see the American eskimo I became due to the weather. So we just rode around the bus tour for a couple more hours and grabbed fish and chips before heading back to Norwich.

I definitely need to go back to London. My total of 6 hours actually touring the city did not give it justice. I don’t think I’ll make it back there this trip but I am looking forward to traveling there again in the future!

I want to end on a note about Harry Potter World. You see before this trip I had always held onto this knowingly gullible and naïve idea that Hogwarts existed. I had this vision that it was somewhere hidden way in the hillsides of Scotland by a lake and you could only get there by train like the books and movie say. However, seeing all the sets and props and watching videos on how the special effects teams created the dramatic movie scenes made it truly hit me that Hogwarts isn’t real. A part of the child within me died, and I was kind of upset for a bit there. It’s so sad to grow up, and the magic that you feel as a child like at Christmas or Easter fade away with age. Rent needs to get paid, internships need to be applied for, graduate school admission exams need to be studied for and taken; and with these things I think aging truly begins to set in. I don’t have significant wrinkles or graying hair, or the same stresses as my dad who raised 3 kids by himself for the past 11 years – but I think that these are the times when we truly become old.

Location: London, UK