Hi everyone! Gabby here again – still across the pond and lovin’ London life. As I’m writing this, I’m battling a horrible flu virus; being sick in London is the absolute worst. Not only can I not go out and explore with my flatmates, but it’s so cold and windy that leaving my building is dreadful. The only plus side of being sick here is that I can find tea anywhere – Thank you, England, for being obsessed with tea.
I’m about to start my third week of classes and I’m realizing the importance of the word ‘study’ in study abroad. Projects and papers and midterms are coming up (my semester is only 7 weeks long) so my sightseeing will be put on hold soon. But let’s get down to the reason I’m writing: I SAW THE HARRY POTTER STUDIOS! This past Thursday most of my flatmates and I took a trip to Warner Brothers Studios outside London to partake in the Harry Potter Studio Tour Experience. The name is long but very necessary – this is nothing like Harry Potter World in Orlando, Florida. Basically, with the HP Studio Tour Experience, you get to tour the countless stages and sets that the actors of the Harry Potter series worked on for a decade.
The tour starts with entering the Great Hall, where all of the houses come together for holidays and important events throughout the series. Spoiler alert: the Great Hall is much smaller than it looks on screen. Huge props to the HP camera crew and their impeccable filming techniques. After leaving the Great Hall, you’re guided to the different sets used for different film sets. From this point on, the tour is self-guided, so I spent a lot of time going through each set to take everything in. When watching the films, you never realize that they weren’t all filmed on location; after going through this tour, I’ve realized that most of the series was filmed on very small sets located just outside London.
As a fan of Harry Potter, I was so excited for this. This might be a bit embarrassing but I honestly was close to tears at one point. HP was such a huge part of my childhood that seeing the Hogwarts model used for filming covered in snow hit me hard. The tour took us through the different sets they used for filming the films. To name a few I saw: the Great Hall, Diagon Alley, the Gryffindor common room, the Chamber of Secrets opening along with countless costumes worn by the cast.
The door to the Chamber of Secrets
Hogwarts covered in snow
Dumbledore’s Office
If you find yourself in England sometime soon, I highly recommend checking this tour out. Especially if you’re a huge Harry Potter fan – this tour made me relive my childhood and it was amazing. However, one downside of this tour that I’ll warn you about is that you will never look at Quidditch the same way again (I’m a bit heartbroken.) I’m already planning on going back later in the semester! Oh, one more diasspointment: butterbeer isn’t really beer – it’s really sweet butterscotch soda with whipped cream on top (still great, though.)
Until next time, Collegiates! HCXO
All other images belong to the author