Hello
friends, family, and random strangers.
Long time no (real) posts, sorry about that. Life’s been a bit hectic of late. I’m currently sitting in an airport awaiting
my 12:40 flight to Cork – it’s barely 9:00, perfect time to catch up on blog
posts. As you may or may not know I was
fortunate enough to visit the Warner Brother’s Harry Potter Studio (AKA the
place Harry Potter was FILMED!!!). As a
HUGE Harry Potter nerd and film nerd alike this was a FABULOUS experience. Getting there from Canterbury, however, was a
less than fabulous time. Let’s recount
this tale:
Twas the 17th of November,
2013. I had just gone to church with
friends. A couple of us were eagerly
awaiting our tour of the Harry Potter studios that night at 6:00pm. We had a plan to get there, and were
confident in our abilities to navigate London – that’s when things started
going wrong. I realised a bit tardily
that the train we wanted to take left 40 minutes from when we returned home
from church, and I still needed to go print off our ticket confirmations for
the tour. Oops – needless to say, we
missed the train. Luckily for us, there
was another train running to London in an hour, and the restaurant with the GF
scones, just happened to be on our way to the train station. After purchasing some tasty baked goods, we
continued on our journey down High Street where we encountered friends from the
Christian Union and had a nice little chat.
Pause – I would
like to take this moment to apologise for the absolutely rubbish writing that
is happening. I’m currently very sleep
deprived (as in 4 hours in 48 hours), so sorry that this reads like a fifth
grader’s show and tell, I’ll attempt to liven it up.
We arrived at the train station and proceeded
to sit on the platform for 30 minutes whilst devouring our treats. Once our train arrived we boarded, sat down,
and read for the entire journey to St. Pancras.
Now it
starts getting good.
Being unfamiliar with the workings of the Tube
and alternative modes of transport to the station where the Harry Potter Tour
Bus was to pick us up, we asked a kind ticket man what was the cheapest
route. He suggested we pay £17 for a day
pass to Zones 1-6. DO NOT DO THIS!!! YOU
WILL WASTE YOUR MONEY. He also informed
us that the Tube was down for maintenance after a certain point, but not to
worry, as a replacement bus would take us the rest of the way. We trusted this man, as he looked very sharp
in his ticket man uniform and seemed quite sure of his advice. We boarded the Overland train and took it as
far as we could. Then boarded another
train and took that as far as it went.
We were then herded to a corner where we awaited a bus parked 10 feet
away. I felt like a refugee. We were eventually allowed to take our seats
on the bus, and then the bus was off....at a snail’s pace. It took us 10 minutes to go one stop – a 1-2
minute journey on the Tube. It was at
this moment I realised we were going to be late. It took nearly 2 hours to get to the end of
the line. This would have been ok except
the replacement bus we were on was for the wrong line – it didn’t run all the
way to the station (Watford Junction) where the Tour Bus was to pick us
up. We were told another bus would come
(like a connecting line), but we waited 20 minutes and it never did. At this point we’d missed the tour bus, and I
was ready to throw in the towel and find some Chinese takeaway and a pub. Luckily, my travel buddy is smarter and more
level-headed than I am, and asked around until we found a taxi service. We then paid £11 each for the taxi to take us
directly to the studio. Simple enough,
pretty straightforward...FALSE – the owner/director of the taxi service gave
our driver the wrong address so we had to back-track. He was not pleased with his boss, but he was
AMAZING and got us to the Studio in time for the 6:30 tour. We gave him a huge tip.
I think the
situation was more frustrating if you were there, but I was ready to punch a
manatee. I just about cried when we
finally made it (I did cry when we entered the Great Hall). I recounted my tale to the clerk and she gave
me a Harry Potter Passport for each ticket saying they were usually reserved
for children, but I looked like I’d had a rough go fully restoring my faith in
humanity.
The tour
itself totally made up for all the stress getting there caused. It was absolutely magical being on the sets
and seeing the props/costumes/buildings used in the film. My life was just about made. Unfortunately we had to rush a little bit to
get through in order to catch the last train to Canterbury. Also the Gift Shop was outrageously
overpriced, but that was only to be expected (it’s also the entire reason
Amazon exists).
Summary:
1. The trip was well-worth the
trouble.
2. I would love to go back and truly
have time to explore.
3. I now have a fun travel anecdote and
resulting wisdom to share with other students.
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