My visit to London!

This week my boyfriend went down to London for a design award event (D&AD), and seeing as I had no university and the majority of my friends were all busy I thought I would join him. In fact, I booked my megabits tickets down the night before, definitely an impromptu decision to go! 


Whilst I was in London I did spend some time at the design show with my boyfriend and some of his course mates, but I also had to go off and kill some time myself. On the Wednesday I got on the subway and went to the Natural History museum. The Natural History museum is definitely one of my favourite places in London and generally one of my all time favourite Museums! I've been to the New York one too, and I've got to say the London one is just as amazing! 

My favourite exhibition is definitely the dinosaurs, I just love anything related to dinosaurs and I could literally spend hours just walking round taking it all in. This time as well I also really enjoyed the Ecology exhibition! Being a Science teacher I just loved all the science and how much all the exhibits related to topics I have recently taught to my pupils. The water cycle display was amazing and explained the whole process extremely well, likewise so did the display for the carbon cycle, food webs etc. I would love to take my pupils on a day out to the Natural History museum one day! I may have to suggest it at my new job! 

Whilst in London I also met up with one of my university friends, who I hadn't seen since New Year. She is currently doing a PGCE herself in London so she came to meet me after teaching at her Primary School. We walked around some shops and then spotted a Nandos so we went for some food there (we used to go Nandos a lot in Leeds!). It was really great seeing her and catching up with her, as we're both so busy lately with our university courses and teaching, so it was great to spend some time together.

On the Thursday I managed to persuade Mark to come to a museum with me for a bit before I had to catch my bus home, and so again we went to the Natural History Museum haha, just because Mark wanted to go and he loves it just as much as I do. Last time we went together we didnt get chance to look round the Earth and Space section so we had a walk round those exhibitions. Afterwards we managed to find a lovely little Italian round the corner from the Natural History Museum and we stuffed our faces with gorgeous pizzas! Being in the restaurant was like actually being in Italy too, as all the staff were Italian, and the majority of the people sat around us were also Italian! Stepping out of the restaurant reminded us that we were in London not Italy. The restaurant was called Pierino and I would definitely recommend that people go! The food was amazing! 

After the food I had to then say goodbye and run to catch my super long bus journey D: 

The megabus journey down wasn't so bad, I mean it was a 6 hour journey but it didnt feel too long because I kept having little cat naps. However the journey back was atrocious! It felt so long and plus the bus/ the people sat near me were all weirdos! haha. I actually checked I still had my belongings after I got off the bus haha. Plus every time the bus stopped the smokers on the bus thought it was there time for a fag break so would get off an waste another ten minutes, the bus in the end was over 1 hour late. Definitely put me off megabits for a long time! 

I do love going to London, and I do wish it was cheaper to go visit our Capital. But I've got to say it isn't my favourite city in England... Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool are all fantastic cities and if you are ever visiting the UK make sure you check out those amazing cities too! 

Our amazing pizzas! 

Exhibition for the Water Cycle! It was like a giant disco room with videos displayed in each square. 

This part was all about how each species is adapted to their own habitat and environment, the images shown on the large flat stones changed every couple of seconds to show different habitats. 

Sadly I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, one because I forgot my camera so these were all taken on my phone, and then also because my phones battery dies so quickly! 

My trip to Hogwarts!

My mother treated me to an end of exams celebratory trip to Harry Potter Studios Tour in London. The trip was a great deal with National Holidays, which included the travel (although it was a horrific coach), the hotel, two meals and a trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour and a few hours in London.

  

On the Saturday we left Preston at 7.15am and arrived in Watford at 12. The tour was amazing, and it was great to see so many different kinds of people enjoying the Harry Potter Tour, there were people from all over the world and from all age ranges. First off there was a short film then we entered through Hogwarts giant doors into the Great Hall. I wont go into too much detail about the tour as it will ruin the surprise for anyone who is going to go! But I will say that it has film props and sets from all of the 8 films ranging from clothing, wigs, the creatures, to Diagon alley!

One of my favourite parts of the tour were the area with the board with all the pictures of the “animal actors”, the board contained all the details of the animals they used within each of the films. Made me laugh that they said all the dogs were well trained and were great to have on the set, whereas the cats did what they want.

There was also a part of the tour that allowed people to use the Green screens that allow the actors to appear like they are flying on brooms, or in the Weasley’s car. I did not have my photo taken on the broomstick as the queue was simply too long, but my mother and I had our photo taken within the Weasleys car.

Another amazing part of the tour was the areas with all the details of how they created all the different creatures within the films, with all the different sketches and models for the creatures such as Aragog, Lupin as the Werewolf and all the banks Goblins. The make up was absolutely amazing! But I’ve got to admit that the goblins were actually really creepy and reminded me of something out of a horror film!

The whole tour took my mother and I about 4 hours to walk round, and that was with us rushing the end of tour worrying that we wouldn’t be back in time for the coach. The shop was slightly disappointing however, the shop could have done to be bigger and have more stock, I was disappointed to find that they didn’t have any Dobby soft toys! We only bought a fridge magnet with Fang on it (had to get something with Fang on), a key ring and a lolly for Mark. 

The hotel we stayed in was a 2 minute walk from Watford town centre, the trip included a buffet of various meals for tea, and also a buffet for the breakfast. The hotel was really nice and I would definitely recommend it. On the Sunday we got to London at 9.45am, which was slightly annoying as the shops only really opened at 12pm, and we needed to be back for the coach at 2pm. We were only really interested in going round the shops because I only went to London in December with my boyfriend and went round all the museums and galleries then. However, I did find the time for my one of my favourite shops; Forever 21. Actually only spent about £65, which is good for me! I will do a fashion post another day with all the goodies that my mother treated me to.

A downside to the trip was that there was a rally/protest march on around Hyde Park in the afternoon which meant that the coach only arrived at 3.45pm, when it was meant to pick us up at 2pm! So that was fun, this meant that we only arrived back in Preston just before 9pm. Thus reinstating my hatred for coaches! 

But to any Harry Potter fans out there, the tour in Watford really is a must! Walking round really made me want to watch all the films back to back again. Was so much fun working out where all the sets and the tiniest of props were from. Now I just need to go to Florida! 

I took over a hundred photos so here is just a few of my favourite ones from the weekend. Also, my phone died half way round the tour so I had to steal my mums phone to take some photos, which i have yet to steal to put up sadly.