Magical Unicorns!!!

All throughout London we had been seeing signs advertising for a "Harry Potter Exhibit" so of course, us being 3 of the biggest HP nerds, decided to look into it to see what it was and if we wanted to shell out the cash for it. Turns out, it was basically the ULTIMATE Harry Potter experience and a kin to an Orlando Studios tour. Only more magical. It was a bit out of the way, but that's because it was at the actual studios where most of the movies were films. It had interactive stuff (riding brooms, getting sorted) props from the movies, lots of behind the scenes info, and probably the motherload of all gift shops. So, we decide YES we want to go, especially since Ally's birthday was Saturday as well.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize that thousands of other people wanted to go as well and that the studios limit the number of people who can visit, meaning reservation in advance is a must. We figured out all the confusing transportation stuff (stupidly) before trying to order tickets the night before. Sold Out. Needless to say, we were fairly devastated, but realized that it was late notice that we were trying to reserve tickets and the chances weren't working in our favor to begin with. We found out later that it was the one year anniversary of the place opening that weekend so tickets had actually been sold out weeks ago. While that made us feel both better and worse about the situation at the same time, we still did not end up going.

HOWEVER, there is always a silver lining (no matter how hard to find it sometimes) and as we would not be spending nearly all day at the exhibit, it left us more time to go about the city sightseeing. To rub salt in our wounds, Saturday turned out to be the day with the crappiest weather of our entire stay so a nice long indoor activity would've been perfect. This was made worse in my situation by the fact that I had yet to re-waterproof my not-so-waterproof raincoat and hadn't even bothered to bring it, leaving me without a hood or umbrella of any type. Well, that last part is just mt stupidity biting me in the ass so I can't really complain.

We decided to start out the morning early-ish and go to Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guards is said to be a big tourist event that's worth the visit, but alas, our luck was long gone this day. During the nice weather months, aka tourist high season, aka summer, aka not when we were there, the guards have the ceremony thing every day. On the off season, they do it every other day, and we just happened to pick the wrong day.

It was still very cool, even for someone who doesn't have royal fever (me) like the rest of the world seems to have.

They have some redonkulous gates at the front, and it's a wonder the guards don't crack up from all the tourists pressed up against them trying to get a good picture of the palace:

Actually, you can't even get up close to the guards to pester them since their pacing track is behind the gate:

This guys literally paced back and forth the entire time we were there and nothing else. I truly do not envy their job as it must be quite boring at times.

I also noticed while I was there that there are a more than normal amount of unicorn statues:

Not that I cared. I actually thought it was quite hilarious and kept having this strange image of the Queen singing that Lady Gaga song while riding a unicorn:

In my mind they're on top of a rainbow or maybe the moon but my photoshop skillz are not yet at that level of hilarity.

The Queen may not be amused but I certainly am.

In reality, I wasn't that far off! Okay maybe I was, but the unicorn is part of the British Royal coat of arms:

Gotta hand it to them, that is one BAMF coat of arms.

After we were thoroughly soaked to the bone, we decided to continue our self-made tour of places where famous people have been. Next on the list was the Globe Theatre:

Even though it's a replica since the original burnt down from the spark of a cannon, (thanks Carmen Sandiego for that fun fact!), it's still cool to see the place where all those plays I had shoved down my throat in high school took place. And as much as I complain about Shakespeare, I actually do appreciate him in a very roundabout way. He gave us some great stories even though I much prefer their modern interpretations like the Lion King and 10 Things I Hate About You. I can't really deal with the whole "Old English" thing unless it's his insults which are probably my favorite of all. He gave us words to insult each other with that not only confuse and astound, but they sound so funny they don't even seem like insults! (don't be fooled they actually are) So next time you want to say something nasty to someone, get creative and try calling them a "mewling fat-kidneyed strumpet" or a "pribbling and beslubbering unchin-snouted giglet"and not only will they not know what on earth you just said, they might be so confused that they thank you!

In our attempt to fill the empty void in our hearts that the failed Harry Potter tour left, we decided to make our own tour of London visiting sites that are in the movies. First on the list because it was right next to the Globe, was the Millennium Bridge:

It's the pedestrian bridge that the Death Eaters destroy at the beginning of the 6th film for those who are not on the same nerdiness level that we are. Here's the clip if you want!

Thankfully, we did not have as bad of an experience crossing it as these people did.

Next stop was the ever famous:

The nerd that I am knew that platforms 9 and 10 actually aren't next to each other, they're across the track from each other. JK Rowling had been envisioning Euston station (another train station in London that's actually within walking distance of King's Cross) when thinking about the platform set up, but the filming did take place at King's Cross, they just used platforms 4 and 5 instead. That being said, it is still a working train station and actually has a quite modern look to most of it:

It's only near the platforms that it looks like it does in the movies. You're not allowed on the actual platforms unless you have a ticket and to prevent nerds from clogging up the boarding areas for the trains, they set up this at a wall close to the platforms:

I honestly didn't care that it wasn't at the actual platforms, I just wanted to revel in all my nerdy glory and get a picture:

They had an organized little set up with a guy who would give you a scarf of your choice (why wouldn't I pick Gryffindor?) and a photographer so you could buy their picture in the gift shop around the corner. Thankfully, they also didn't care if your friends took pictures for you instead.

Our Harry Potter craving being sated, we decided to do something indoors since the weather had not lightened up. Thinking it a good idea to head to the aquarium where we could use the 2 for 1 ticket deal, we headed that way....along with every family with small children in the city of London. We should've seen it coming since it was raining, on a Saturday, and parents needed things to do with the kids. It was quite the wait to get in but it was cool. My only gripe again was that it was so incredibly crowded, but there's nothing really to do about that. Of course, that didn't stop us from taking ridiculous pictures because let's be honest, not much could stop that.

We kept joking the entire weekend that since our 4th roommate, Kate, wasn't with us in London, we kept "finding" her all over the place.

We found Kate!

We found her again!

 There she is!

Nice 'stache Kate!

Amidst all our silliness, we came across a fish that quickly became our favorite:

I'm pleased to introduce you to the lumpsucker. Ally and I found this so hilarious that we started incorporating it into our Shakespearian insult list. Another favorite work we came across was "denticle" which we incorporated equally. "Geeze don't be such a lumpsucker!" "You lumpsucking denticle you!" Yes. Yes we were acting the age of all the small children around us. But we didn't care and heck, it even made us fit in better.

We decided to head back to the hostel for what had become our daily nap time, but I wasn't really all that tuckered out so I decided to take a stroll around the area. Even though our street was pretty quite, I knew that it ran into a busier street at the opposite end so I headed that way. Turns out it's a bustling place that was BURSTING with ethnic food restaurants. They had everything from typical Italian and French bakeries to halal to Austrian or Nepalese. There were even ones that I didn't really know existed. If I had the cash, I would've tried multiple ones each day but I also had the misfortune of only finding it on our last full day there, so alas, it was not meant to be.

Since that night was Ally's birthday and we hadn't eaten out all weekend, we decided to go out for dinner. Ally chose Mexican since, if you remember from past posts, it's pretty hard to come by in Cork. The restaurant was much schwankier than I've ever seen of a Mexican restaurant and thankfully we didn't need reservations even though it was a Saturday night. We also didn't mind spending the money on the place (it was pricey) since we had been saving a lot that weekend anyway. The drinks were amazing (we even got a free shot since it was Ally's birthday) and the food was even better. We decided to skip out on the desserts as they seemed a bit too odd for our taste at the moment. I would've tried them all, but I wasn't really feeling a corn on the cob for dessert at that time. No joke it was on the menu.

After dinner, we decided to bar hop for a while and tried to find a clubbier place to dance at Ally's request, but turns out most places in London that are clubby and dancey have cover charges. Ridiculous cover charges that we neither wanted to pay nor could afford at this point in our trip. Oppositely, all the bars and pubs that didn't have cover charges had much chiller atmospheres and were more of a place to sit and chat with friends. It actually worked out because we were getting pretty tired as it was late so we decided to head back so we could get an early start on our last day.