And here is the haul from London I got these laptop/smartphone or tablet stickers from the platform 9 ¾ shop. this set of 27 gadget decals was £6. Also, from the platform 9 ¾ shop I got a Slytherin scarf, a Slytherin lanyard with the train ticket, a chocolate frog mold set, a chocolate frog, and a postcard and Harry’s acceptance letter. Slytherin scarf £33 Slytherin lanyard with ticket £4,95 Chocolate frog mold set £15 Chocolate frog £4,75 Platform 9 ¾ postcard £0,50 Harry Potter’s Acceptance Letter £8 At the end of the harry potter walking tour we visited MinaLima and there I bought these 2 set of postcards. MACUSA artifacts postcards £10 The Hogwarts Series postcards £10 At the Primark I got the Slytherin Quidditch jumper and a stainless-steel travel mug with a Daily Prophet design. Slytherin Quidditch jumper £14 Stainless-steel travel mug £5 At the Noble Collection I got this little guy; a Niffler I absolutely love it and it’s so cute! Niffler plush £19 Then my beautiful photo from platform 9 ¾. The photo £9,50 The things I got from Forbidden Planet are a Hogwarts poster, the baby Nifflers 2-pack from the fantastic beasts and crimes of Grindelwald funko pop! line and a series 3 mystery mini; I got Cedric. Baby Nifflers £21,99 Hogwarts poster £3,99 Harry Potter mystery mini-series 3 £4,99 And here are all the things I got from the museums. At the Natural History museum, I got 2 post cards and a ‘Rainbow aura quartz geode’. Each postcard £0,75 Rainbow aura quartz geode £5 At the Victoria and Albert museum I got 3 postcards. Each postcard £0,75 And last but not least at the British Museum I also got 2 postcards. Each postcard £0,70 And that was the All the stuff I got from London, I’m very happy with everything I got. and this trip a few of my wishes/ dreams came true: visiting London, going to the platform 9 ¾ shop and take a photo and going to the Noble Collection shop. If I plan to ever go back to London I really want to visit the studio tours but that will hopefully be in a few years.
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Wednesday October 17 I was very excited for this day because today we were doing the harry potter walking tour and visit house of MinaLima!! I was expected to be in the lobby at 10.30am, we all woke up around 7.30am, got dressed and ate breakfast. Mariëlle, Mylène and Jeannine had a different program for the morning than me and they were expected at a different time. when everyone was present we started the harry potter walking tour. we started walking from the hostel towards kings cross station and sadly it was raining so that was a bit disappointing. we were allowed to take a look around the shop and this time I bought a lot more than the day before and this time it was a lot busier then yesterday. the other places we were planned to visit were: No. 12 Grimmauld Place, the Leaky Cauldron, Millennium Bridge, the ministry of magic (phone booth), the REAL Diagon Alley and the location where the premiere of harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 was in London. out of the 7 places we were planning to visit we only visited the first 3 because of the bad weather. it was very fun, special and kind of weird to stand and visit the places they actual filmed at, now every time I watch the harry potter movies and I see either of those 3 locations in the movies I can see “I’ve been there to!”. After visiting the leaky cauldron, we made our way to house of MinaLima. I absolutely loved house of MinaLima to see all of their work. they are one of the people I look up to as I myself am studying to become a graphic designer. after visiting the house of MinaLima we were free to do what we wanted for the rest of de day and evening. me and Mariëlle met up at a McDonalds (yes again) on oxford street. we ate something and then made our way towards the Primark. at the Primark I obviously went looking for the harry potter section. i knew that at the Primark in oxford street they had a whole section with all the harry potter stuff and boy was it beautiful. it was decorated with suitcases, owls, books, bird cages, hanging from the ceiling were all the 4 house banners and on the wall was a painting of the Hogwarts crest. I didn’t buy much mostly because I wouldn’t have fit in my suitcase, I did really want some of the Christmas ornaments but I was afraid they would break so I didn’t get them and I’m going to look if they have them in a Primark nearby me. after the Primark we walked around oxford street for a while and then made our way to the metro station to go to Covent garden. can you guess where we went to? we went to the noble collection store!! it was so magical to walk in there and also weird because I have watched so many YouTube videos of people visiting the noble collection store and platform 9 ¾ store and pictures of people visiting it so it was a bit weird so be walking there myself. we spend around 15min in the store just looking around and I also bought 1 item. after then noble collection store we decided to go back to the hostel. before we went back to the hostel we quickly stopped at the supermarket and both got a pasta salad for dinner because we were both very tired and weren’t feeling like going out for dinner and just eat in our room back at the hostel. after eating dinner and hanging around the room for a while I changed into different clothing because we were going back to platform 9 ¾ to make a photo!! when me and Mariëlle got there it wasn’t as busy as this morning. while I was standing in line it was the turn of a young couple to take a picture he was a Gryffindor and she was a Slytherin and suddenly he grabs her hands and says something and he goes down on his knees and proposes to her!! it was so cute and they both had to cry a bit! I only had to wait 25 min before it was my turn (Mariëlle didn’t want a picture so she waited for me). while i was waiting in line the lady who took the photos saw my Slytherin jumper and said “love your jumper!!” which I found very nice! also while waiting in line Mylène and Jeannine arrived because Mylène wanted to buy something from the shop as well. I purchased my photo and Mylène got a Gryffindor pin, me and Mariëlle went back to the hostel while Mylène and Jeanine went to Starbucks. after a while they also came back to the hostel with their dinner: sushi. while they ate we just talked about the trip and stuff. when they were done eating we decided to go downstairs and sit in the lounge room for a while. after a while me and Mariëlle went back up to the room because we were tired and I began to get a headache. when we were back at the room I took some aspirins and was about to get ready for bed. we were planning to go to bed early but I came down to around 00.30am when we were finally lay in bed. and here are some extra photo's with me on them 😊😁 Thursday October 18 today was the last day in London and also the day we were going back home. we again all woke up at 7.30, got dressed, ate breakfast and started packing our bags. I bought a lot of stuff I had to put some weight on my suitcase to get it closed (oops). when we were done we went downstairs and wait in the lounge room until it was 9.45am. at 9.45am we could bring our suitcases to a room where they would be stored for us until the end of the last activity. when everyone was ready we had to hand in our oyster card and started walking towards the British Museum. arrived at the British museum we made a group photo in front of the building. the teacher led us inside and straight towards the mummies after that it was everyone on its own. me and Mariëlle probably spend the most time in the Egypt and Greek section of the museum. after about 1 hour we decided to go outside and eat our lunch. after our lunch we had about 2 hours to kill before we had to be back at the hostel. we decided to go to the Forbidden Planet that was about a 10 min walk from the museum. I absolutely loved the forbidden planet I wished we had such a store in the Netherlands. I went straight towards the harry potter and fantastic beasts section and Mariëlle walked around the store. I found a few items (more stuff to try to fit in my bag, oops)and Mariëlle found a dragon ball z funko pop keychain for her boyfriend. after that we made our way back to the hostel and grabbed our bags. I tried to stuff the last things I bought into my bag but I didn’t fit, so I asked the teachers if I could take another bag with me because it ought you could only bring your suitcase and backpack with you on the train. but I was allowed to bring another bag so I just stuffed most of the stuff I bought while we were in London in that extra bag. When everyone was back at the hostel and had their suitcases and bags we made our way towards St Pancras. we arrived there at 2.45pm and got our tickets, our train would depart at 4.30pm and we could not go through customs until 4 o'clock so we had to wait for about 1.30 hours. our teachers went their own way and most of the students just sat on the ground waiting until it was time for us to go through customs. when it was finally 4 o’clock we all went through customs and had to wait for another 1 and a half hours before we could board the train. when the train finally arrived we all made our way towards the train and searched for our seats. the Eurostar we were in was one that went to Amsterdam and stopped at Brussels and Rotterdam and we would get off in Rotterdam. when we finally arrived in Rotterdam after about 3 and half hours, my dad stood waiting for me, we got something to eat and made our way to the car and drove home. i was so happy to be home again and sleep in my own bed.
Monday October 15Today was the day we finally went to London!! we were expected at Rotterdam central station at 7.30am I live in Bergen op Zoom which is about a 45 min drive and a 1-hour train ride from Rotterdam. I got up around 5am and got the train at 6.14am and arrived at Rotterdam central station at 7.09am. I had to pick up a friend and together we walk to the meeting point. we had to wait a little before all the other students and the teacher arrived. when the teacher arrived, we got our tickets to Brussel south and had to wait a little before the train arrived. At 8.10 am we stepped on the train to Brussel south and at 10.15am we arrived in Brussel. At Brussel south, we had to go to customs, when my bag went through the scanner the man how was looking at the screen checking the bags said ‘you have a knife in your bag, right? can you grab it’ I had a cutlery set from the army with me from my dad which consisted of a butter knife, a fork, a spoon and a can opener. I opened my suitcase and showed it to him, he ‘approved’ it and I got it back and could continue to the ID control. after that and 10 minutes of waiting we could board the Eurostar to London. at 11.57am English time (there is an hour difference between the Netherlands and England so when it is 8am in England it is 9am in the Netherlands). when we arrived in London and where out of the train we gathered at st pancras and made our way to the place we would be staying at. we stayed at the generator hostel in London which was about a 10 min walk from st Pancras and Kings cross. when we walked around London towards the hostel I was amazed because it was 1 of my dreams to go to London and here I was, in London with school! we dumped our suitcases at the hostel and got a oyster card (The Oyster card is an electronic payment and access pass for public transport in London) and made our way to the nearest metro station (which is Russell square). While walking they showed us places where we could eat and a supermarket nearby. we went on a city walk through London, we started at Buckingham Palace walked from there trough London and took a bus to the sky garden. while we were in the bus we drove by Westminster abbey and the London eye. we arrived at the sky garden and got our tickets to go in but we had to wait 30 min because our ticket said 3.15pm and it was only 2.45 when we arrived. when we were finally let in we had to go through security and where then led to the elevators to go up. it was very misty on Monday so we didn’t have a very good view but we could see the tower bridge and the millennium bridge. after looking at the view we walked around the sky garden and stood in line to go downstairs. after the sky garden we made our way towards the cinema (genesis cinema, closest metro stop is Stepney green) we had a little more than 1 hour the time to eat and me and 3 friends decided to go to Nando’s and it was delicious. After we ate dinner it was time to head back to the movie theater, there we got our movie tickets from the teachers. we went to the movie A Star Is Born I really liked the songs but it wasn’t my kind of movie I would’ve rather gone to Johnny English strikes again. after the movie we made our way back to the hostel, got our suitcase and our room number and key-card. me and my 3 friends were sharing a room with 2 other girls. our room was room number 602 which was located on the sixth floor. we took the elevator to floor 5 and had to take 2 sets of stairs to get to floor 6. on the sixth floor there we 4 rooms and a door to the roof, if we wanted to use the showers or toilets we had to go back to floor 5 but we all didn’t mind that. our room was located at the end of the hallway and consisted out of 4 bunkbeds, a small sink, a window with a view of the roof, 2 power sockets with each 2 USB ports and 2 English plugs and 4 coat hangers along the wall. each bunk bed had its own locker underneath the bed where you could store your suitcase, clothes or valuable things, you did have to bring your own padlock if you wanted to use it. after we all choose our beds we went to make our beds after that Mylène and Jeannine (2 of my friend I shared the room with) went to go shower and me and Mariëlle (my other friend) put our stuff in the lockers and got dressed in our pajamas and plugged our phones in the charger and chatted for a little bit and eventually went to sleep. Tuesday October 16we all woke up around 7.30am and got dressed because we had to get breakfast before the activities would started. me, Mariëlle, Mylène and Jeannine went to the supermarket to get some breakfast, of course we could’ve eaten breakfast at the hostel but the teachers advised us to just go to the supermarket because that would be a lot cheaper than buying breakfast at the hostel. after getting breakfast we went back to our room and ate breakfast in the room. at 10.30am me and Mariëlle were expected in the lobby of the hostel to go to the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert museum. when everyone was there we made our way towards the metro station, but before that we had 10 minutes the time to get some lunch and get some cash money if you had not already done so. when we arrived at the natural history museum we were told that we had 1 hour before we were expected outside again. what surprised me was that the museum was free, you didn’t have to pay to enter you could choose to donate some money but you weren’t required to pay. the museum was very nice and fun but it was very busy with school kids. after the natural history museum, we went to Kensington gardens to eat lunch. after the lunch we made our way towards the Victoria and albert museum. At the V&A museum it was again quite busy with school kids but it was fun. we also had about 1 hour the time to walk around the museum before we were expected outside to go to Camden town. when we arrived at Camden town we were free to wander around until 7pm when we would start the tube challenge. we had around 5 hours to kill before it was time so me and Mariëlle walked around all of the shops. Camden town is very cute with all the small shops but it was a bit of a disappointment that most of the shops sold the same things. i did see some harry potter t-shirts, candy and harry potter themed wooden boxes (if that makes any sense). one of my favorites was the 2 little shop’s where they were painting shoes with different designs from movies, people and landscapes. we then walked around the normal shops and we found a Waterstones where we walked around for about 20 min. after we ate some McDonald’s we went to the Tesco express to get some drinks and snacks for the next day and for later on the evening/night. we then sat on a set of stairs for about 2 hours waiting it for it to be 7pm, we were both tired and had sore feet from the day before and walking around all day so we decided to just sit and wait. when it was finally 7pm and all of the other students and teacher were at the assembling point we had to form groups of max 5 people and the tube challenge would begin! me, Mariëlle, Mylène and Jeannine formed a group and were the second group to start the tube challenge. the first clue sends us to kings cross station and the exact place was platform 9 ¾ shop!! I was so happy and excited to visit the shop because it was always a dream of me to go there! because we didn’t have a lot of time (the challenge was based on time so the group with the fasted time wins the challenge) I only had a quick look around the shop and to my surprise it wasn’t very busy (we were there around 7.30pm). after that we were send all around London some of the place we went to are the Lego store, M&M store and also close to the London Eye and Big Ben. after we were done with all of the exercises we had to go back to the hostel and we were done. we were back in our room around 11pm and just sat around the room talking with each other and went to bed around 12.30pm.
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hi!Last week I went to London with school and I decided to make a blogpost about it. ArchivesCategories |