A Day in... Edinburgh (1)

First Christmas alone. A lot of au pairs go home for the festive holiday, but I decided to stay in the UK and visit Scotlands capital city instead. Well, not on Christmas itself, but right before that.

Taking a coach like I did has its pros and cons. It is way cheaper than a train and you can take a night bus, but it isn't as comfortable and fast. But this can also vary depending on the person. I was not able to get a good nights sleep on my way to Edinburgh, just a few little naps. Arriving at 7:45am, I took my backpack and headed to the next McDonalds to get some breakfast. And this was amazing already; standing on the street that is so different from London, on the top of a hill with a good look at the sea. However, my way was headed for the castle. My hostel Castle Rock Hostel was basically right at the base of the castles hill. It's great, everyone is very helpful, the rooms are big, there is hot water in the shower and the facilities are very comfy. 10/10!

(view from the front door)

DAY 1

Anyways, I was so tired that I hang around the breakfast/ meeting room for another hour before going on a little tour through the city. First I went into a little church since it was Sunday and the 4. Advent. The people there were really welcoming, three people asked me independently who I was and how I was doing as they didn't see me before. While having a cup of tea right after the mess I talked to some of the locals, or at least people now living in Edinburgh, who gave me the typical tourist places to go to, told me to try Haggis no matter what and so on. I already knew I wanted to go to the Harry Potter Trail in the afternoon, but until then I got to see the Christmas Market, got lunch and just wandered around a bit.

The Harry Potter Trail is a great, and free!, walking tour for every Harry Potter fan. It's only about 90 min long and takes you to the graveyard that inspired some of the characters names which is right next to the real life Hogwarts, the uni Rowling graduated from, the two cafès where Rowing wrote the books as well as the inspiration for Diagon Alley. The tour guide comes in full outfit and lends everyone a diy wand. Really great experience, which also lets you find new friends. 

I, for example, went to get a delicious hot chocolate in the Elephant House - "Birthplace of Harry Potter" with a girl from Germany I met on the tour; don't forget to check out the bathrooms for Harry Potter grafiti including letters to Rowling, quotes from both movies and books and sketches. Later we went for Haggis and let me tell you, it really is better than everyone makes it out to be. Really, it's not different from any sausage you eat, maybe a bit more spicy.

After that I went to my hostel and like I said, the rooms are really big. Everyone has his own locker (free, and don't forget a locket!), the bunks are against walls or divider and grant enough privacy for everyone and there is another space to walk around without feeling cramped. The washrooms are for everyone on the level, but they are spacy and hot, so that's ok. And seriously, nobody cares if you walk around in your PJs, everyone does it.

DAY 2

The day starts with a breakfast (1,5 pound) consisting of a bread roll, cereals and orange juice. The atmosphere is very relaxed and sleepy. Taking into account I was still rather tired and slept in, it was a great and easy way to wake up.

After breakfast I headed straight for St. Giles Cathedral, a beautiful place to start the day. I got postcards for my family and friends and went on to Calton Hill with the National Monument of Scotland. It was dizzy and windy, but once I made the first few pictures the weather cleared up. It's a great place to see Edinburgh from about while still seeing a lot of details. Up there is the old astronomy tower with the old telescope, a half finished monument in ancient greek style as well as a small little cafè. In total I spent about 1,5 hours up there taking photos, reading the info charts and enjoying the view.

Next stop is the National Portrait Gallery to come down and getting warm again. Apart from the old portraits (lets be honest, you get tired of those) there was also an exhibition about portaits of differents styles from all over the world. It is amazing to see how different the drawing and painting styles are. There were the once that looks so photorealistic you had to look twice, the once with minimalistic lines and colours, the expressionists and realists. Truely breath-taking.

And that was about it. The first part of my vacation was mostly a mix of museums and walking, really. Photos tomorrow!

Harry Potter Studio Tour!

What do you associate with England? The Queen, sure. The Beatles and One Direction maybe. The origin of the punk scene and afternoon tea. Charles Dickens and J. R. R. Tolkien.
Oh, and Harry Potter.

The Harry Potter euphoria started in 1997 and is still going strong. Books, additional books, movies, wands, clothes, action figures, whatever you want can be bought somewhere. But sometimes, you have to leave your house to get to an important milestone in the life of a wizard or witch... I mean fan!

One of those places is for sure the Warner Bros studios in Leavesden near Watford. Just a train ride away from London (best via Euston) you can get on the Harry Potter studio tour bus that drops you off right in front of the doors of a rather ugly yellowish building. But be careful, you need to buy your ticket in advance online!
I've already been there in 2013 and didn't plan on going again simply because it costs 33 pounds and I didn't think there would be anything new. But another au pair invited the rest of our group as part of a group organized by her agency. In the end, we were four people going.

I'm not going into too much into details about the tour/exhibition. The Great Hall was the same except for a few Christmas trees and that the food displayed was different. They had the in Britain usual Christmas crackers for each house, plum pudding with inpressive fire effects and of course the clothes from the different houses as well as some professors in the front. As a bigger fan of the books than the movies I again was very happy about the house point hourglasses in the back counting the house points.

The rest of the tour is a mix of costumes, probs and explanations. They show you how the floating candles work, the different wigs for the characters and tricks to make hallways look way longer than they are. Every once in a while a mini TV and the wall shows short film sequences of the main actors, but mostly Daniel Radcliffe, and other important persons like the producers talking about their experience on set and behind the scenes. At one point hree interactive marauder maps show you behind pictures of different rooms and how they were re-used. They also show you examples to explain the difference between visual and special effects.

Throughout the tour you can visit the Hogwarts Main Gate from part 6, the Gryffindor common room, the Boys dormitory, Dumbledores office, the potion classroom, the dining room of Malfoy Manor, the Burrow and Hagrids hut. There are also small sections of the Ministry Hall, Umbridges office, Borgin & Burkes and the Yull Ball. Everywhere in between there are small sections for things like armor, books, signs, skulls, Lupins suitcase and Crouch Jr. box where he keeps Mad Eye alive.

The last part of this half of the tour is an interactive one. If you ever wanted to know what it's like to sit on a broomstick, this is your chance! You get a maybe 40 seconds movie playing and an employee telling you what you have to do and how to move. It's really comfortable and you even have a Hogwarts cloak on which makes really good pictures (even though they are really expensive - take your parents with you!).

This was the main tour you could say. Two years ago you went straight outside after that, but by now they added another feature: King's Cross plattform 9 3/4 with the Hogwarts Express!
And you can actually walk through it. With compartments dedicated to the different school years you feel like you are actually on your way to another year of dangerous potions and Quidditch matches. There are also three parts where you can take photos that look like you are halfway through the wall. Right next to it is a sweets shop with Harry Potter themed candy.

After a quick lunch in the cafeteria we went outside. There are only 4 things: The Night bus, the creaky wood bridge that collapses in the last movie and the houses of the Dursleys and the Potters. This time even with soup fake snow coming out of the sky!

Back inside you get a look into the mask department. There you have everything from goblins, the Fenrir, to animatronics like Lupin's werwolf, Hagrid's head and Buckbeak. And like always, the staff is more than happy to answer questions.

Through the next door you walk straight into Diagon Alley. With Gringotts on one end and multiple stores left and right until you come to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. I can't even discribe it, you actually have to see it yourself. You just feel like you are actually there to buy your wand or broom or just to get a few extra books.

Sadly, this was the last actual set. After this are only two more rooms with architecture sketches and small modells of different rooms and buildings like the Burrow or the Great Hall.
Talking about which, One last thing is there. And it's gigantic. And now, even covered in snow! A complete modell of Hogwarts that was actually used for flying and establishing shots. You can see small details like the telescope on the Astronomy tower, every little window and door (some even with light), trees and stones and connections you weren't aware of until now.

It is amazing. Now matter what, if you are a Harry Potter fan you are entitled to go and see this piece of art. It took us 6 hours to go through everything (Partly due to me taking too many pictures...) and I swear to god, you feel inspired and out of the world once you come out again. Maybe even with presents and souvenirs thanks to the fan shop in the end. Go and treat yourself with a bit of magic.

Fares and Markets

It's christmas time. And what comes with that? Markets!!

One of my au pair children had a christmas fare at her school last Thursday after school. She is in secondary school which means it goes beyond cute little sketches and cookies. They had popcorn, cupcake and fudge stands (a great christmas present I think) but also really interesting stuff for older people like cosmetics, clothes, shoes and one with fandom/book jewellery.

The Christmas markets in Kingston itself is rather small, just a few stands with mittens, christmas-y food and mulled wine, Surprisingly, there is always German beer somewhere. But lets be honest, German beer is just the best, even if I'm not much of a drinker.

There is at least one other market I want to check out when I have the time which is the one in Central London at the Southbank right next to the London Eye. It looks really lovely and even has a roller skates tent. Maybe next week I will visit.

Saturday

On Saturday we finally did a typical tourist activity again: visiting Westminster Abbey. As one of our four person group didn't buy an online ticket we had to stand in line but it didn't take long before we were in. I had a bit of a problem to be honest because I bought  student ticket but was only able to show my expired student card from secondary school. Mostly because I didn't think they would actually check it - they don't do it in cinemas! I got in anyways, even though I was warned to not use it again - oops...
WA is a lovely church that's even bigger than it looks from the outside. When you watch out, you see the graves of well-known personalities like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Sir Isaac Newton. The more prominent graves are the memorials for deceased Kings and Queens. It's where coronations and royal weedings take place and the famous Westminster Abbey Choir sings everyday apparently. It is definitely worth a visit.
Tip: buy the ticket online, it's cheaper and you can get in faster.

Sunday

On Sunday the British Street Food Festival took place in London right next to the O2 Arena. It was only 5 pound which is really cheap - even  though kinda ridiculous when you think about it; you pay just so you can buy food. At least a beer was included in the prize. And it was nice. There was a tent with live music and a gigantic deckchair. Outside there were food trucks for Italian pasta, pizza, meatballs, sushi, ribs, seafood...
They even had smaller portions just for trying which were cheaper and made it possible to try different things. Of course, the reason for that was that you got a chip in the beginning that you could use as a vote for your favorite dish. I have no idea who won it the end as we left early, but out of the two things I had (fried lasagna rolls vs ribs) I liked the lasagna better. It's just a new idea that not everyone had tried before.

The problem with the whole event is that no amongst of bonfires and heating mantles can fully warm you up. We wanted to sit down in a Costa before going back into Central London; however all the places were occupied which means we did manage to get warm on the inside thanks to coffe and hot chocolate but we were still colder than wanted because we had to sit outside on a bench. And it was getting darker and darker so we went back into the tub and drove into the city. There we limited our visit to a walk through the Oxford street before going home.
London during Christmas time is really magical. All the fairy lights and the fact that it gets dark rather quickly makes everything look so much more interesting than it is already. Of course it is entirely different from a small town or even village with snow and poeple running around with five layers of clothes, but it's a good kind of different. I really enjoy it and look forward to Christmas itself.