Swissbookworm: A Very Potter Vacation

Hello there! So some of you might already have noticed this, but I’m just going to say it again: I’m a huge Potterhead! Saying I’m a fan of Harry Potter is quite the understatement. In my opinion it’s has become a lifestyle. Harry Potter has touched every corner of the world and I meet new potterheads on a weekly basis. This summer I went interrailing through the UK and Ireland and I decided to end it with a Pottery-week (can I use that as a word?) in London. I’d love to share with you guys what I actually did in that week so this post will be dedicated to that. (It can also be used as a guideline on what to do in London if you’re a Potterhead, if you like!) Oh and very happy 1st of September! I'm all packed and ready for Hogwarts, but I think the Hogwarts Express will once again not come to pick me up. :/

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Script

On Monday August 1st, I bought my copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Waterstones. This actually didn’t happen in London, but in Bristol where they decorated their Waterstones to match the event. I was actually quite surprised to find every single Waterstones in the whole of UK I went into to be decorated in a wizardly way! How incredible is that?

Millennium Bridge and Platform 9 3/4

On Tuesday August 2nd, my friends and I went to the Millennium Bridge and asked strangers to take weird pictures of us (I’m not going to show these to you, though, because they’re really weird. We tried to take ‘ballet-pictures’ and the other tourists just kept staring at us and in the end we were just laughing around half on the floor because of the ridiculousness, which was quite fun!). Before this, though, we went to Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross and visited the Pottershop there (which was packed full with tourists, why we left quite soon after entering). We didn’t take a picture at the platform because I’ve done it before already and there were just way too many people there.

The Cursed Child Part I

On Thursday August 4th, the day I’ve been waiting for 12 months had finally arrived! It was the night of Part I of the Cursed Child and I was so incredibly nervous about it all. I didn’t read the book (and I recommend you don’t read it if you’re going to watch the theater sometime soon, because it’s totally worth going into the show without one single clue what’s going to happen!) and I was mindblown throughout it all. The entire audience gasped, laughed, clapped and cried at the same time and it was so incredible I don’t even know how I should describe this further. I’ll give you a proper review of the show when I review the book.

This is a picture of me, my friend Rebecca and Sam Clemmett who plays Albus Potter (he’s such a sweet person by the way!)

The Cursed Child Part II

On Friday August 5th, was the day we saw Part II of the Cursed Child. Again, I won’t be going into this any further right now otherwise I’ll just end up sobbing over my laptop and never stopping myself from writing about all the feelings I have about the story. After the show I got the possibility to wait outside the Stage Door Entrance and meet some of the actors and get basically all of their autographs on my programme!

Oxford Trip

On Saturday August 6th, Rebecca and I went to Oxford. What gives you more of a Hogwartsy-feeling than visiting schools that actually look like castles? Oxford is such a lovely town and I adore it! I’d really love to study there for a semester or so, I have to check out if that’s possible for me. In the evening we returned to the theater for the third (!) time to get pictures with the actors because we only concentrated on getting autographs the previous nights (except the picture with Sam). Let’s have a look at those gems. Please, please just ignore me because I just got weirder and weirder. And I won't show all the pictures because a lot of them have really bad quality.

Probably my favourite Cursed Child actor along Sam Clemmett was Anthony Boyle who played Scorpius.

And here's my favourite adult actor from the whole story! Can you guess who Paul Thornley played? ;)

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

On Sunday August 7th, we went to the Leavesden Studios! This was my second time there and it wasn’t any less interesting than the first time I went. I think we spent about 4 hours in there and we even had a small lunch and of course some Butterbeer! By the way, have any of you tasted it? Do you like it? I’m the only person in my family and friend circle who actually likes the drink (mind you, I can’t drink the white stuff becaue I’m lactose-intolerant, so maybe that’s a reason why I like it better?). I’m just going to show you some of the pictures I took because I’m such a fan of the place and really want to share my pictures with other people who might like them.

House of MinaLima

On Monday August 8th, I went to the House of MinaLima as the grand finale. It was such a great visit. I got to talk to very nice people in there and I think I spent like half an hour just talking to one of the guys who was very nice and told me a lot of cool and interesting stuff about Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima’s work.

So yeah, it was a pretty great vacation! Of course there are still so many more pottery-things to do, but yeah, these were probably the highlights of my London week.