I Went To Hogwarts! (Sorta...)

Continuing on with my London adventures, one of the first things I did after purchasing my flight tickets a year in advanced, was buying these tickets for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London where they had the making of the Harry Potter movies! All the real props and replicas from the movies were showcased here, how could I not go?

It actually started raining the day I went, which to be honest, made the atmosphere that much better but it was freezing cold. Coming from California, I took like a hoodie and small jacket. Big mistakes were made. It didn't matter though. All that mattered was that I was about to see the world of Harry Potter up close and personal. I was so damn excited. In fact, I was SO excited that I actually had no idea where the location of this place would be. Turns out, it's not exactly IN London. I mean....it is, but it's like wayyyyyy North east of London and I was in Westminster which is Central London. It was about an hour drive up there. Whoops. I literally told my friend about it the day I got there and he was like, "Great planning. Do you even know where it is?" And then, like legit the night before, I had to figure out how to get there. Yeah, when it comes to events and such, I kinda tend to just wing it. I'm an adult. Don't judge me.

THE GREAT HALL
First stop was The Great Hall! There weren't any floating candles sadly, but I did get to see the costumes that the cast members wore at Hogwarts.



THE YULE BALL

THE BOYS DORM
Harry slept here! No, you can't lay in the bed, sadly.

TRAVELOGRAPHY: London Night

True story ya'll, I did it. I conquered my fear of going on airplanes alone and it was for a grueling 11 hours, but it was so worth it. I would do it all over again if I could. 

I decided to spread these posts out because trying to showcase my trip to London all in one post just doesn't seem like it would do it justice. And it's also just straight up impossible. I have way too many pictures. Anyway, just to reiterate, this was my first International trip. It was a bit of a culture shock, even though everyone there speaks English. London has always been a dream city of mine. I'm not sure how to explain it, I just love British culture and I don't mean because of Doctor Who (which I've never seen) or hot British men or hell, the cast of Game of Thrones. This fascination goes way back to my first year in college. I had a huge poster of Big Ben above my bed because I thought the architecture was just so cool. And that's the thing, the architecture is a big reason as to why I love London so much. The contrast between historical old buildings and the modern new buildings is what draws me to this city. After all, I am all about CONTRAST.

It also helped that I knew someone from London. He helped me learn a lot about British culture and phrases like "SWEAR DOWN FAM?" and "JOG ON MATE" and "BRUV" which is like the equivalent of "bruh". Yeah...okay, so maybe it doesn't help that he's from East London and only knows street slang but it still sorta helped. 

I'm not gonna lie, the minute I got off the plane I thought, "Wow I don't know what people are talking about with jet lag, I don't feel that shit at a--" and then bam. I literally died for the next three days. I came crawling out into the streets only at the dead of night. It was hauntingly beautiful actually, but it was sorta stupid at the same time. Therefore, I took a lot of photographs at night, and because it was late I didn't really feel like hauling my camera around. I know, what is wrong with me? I did, however, take around my handy dandy Fuji x70. Low light performance on this thing isn't its strong suit but it was pretty decent. However, I did try and capture the beauty of the night while walking around like a lost tourist at 1am and such. Actually, I probably looked more like a drunk local instead. 

Speaking of "hauntingly beautiful", Buckingham Palace is something else at 3am. I also kinda accidentally stumbled upon it because I really had no idea where I was going. Isn't yolo adventuring just the best? 

You can eat ramen until midnight on a week night!

London at night was lit fam. Can't wait to come back and try everything during daylight hours.

|| Listening To: Dornik - "Drive" ||

Stay tuned:
- Warner Bros. Studio Tour - Making of Harry Potter
- Shopping In London
- London Guide For First Timers: By an actual first timer