Reunions, Bikes, and Hogwarts

     Picking up from the cliffhanger from yesterday...I did not go to line up for Matilda and instead opted for a very slow sort of morning. Dallin departed early in the morning for an author event in some obscure town outside of London and Ben slept in quite late. I'm not typically one for sleeping in anymore these days, so I read in bed for a while and made my way down to the Common Room to see if there were any British versions of Saturday Morning cartoons. I'm mildly joking as far as the cartoons go, though I would not have said no had I found some. Instead I watched some intense scenes from Scottish Parliament LIVE! Yep, it was an intense sort of morning, but one that I really think that I needed. I have not been feeling quite as congestive but my eyes have been itching like crazy! Begone vague sickness, whatever you are!

Would you believe I actually sat through a lot of this?

And in case you're curious, here's glance of our common room

    Though my day had a very slow start in comparrison to some of my more adventure laden days, it sure picked up quickly after that. One of my great friends from my original program, Kristina, was in London today and we decided to meet up at Taza's for lunch at 1:00. I left my flat around 12:30 to give myself some time to get over. It's just on the other side of Hyde Park close to where the BYU London Center is, but the park is pretty large so public transport would usually be the best way to get there. I say usually because I forgot that the tube is awful on the weekends these days. Construction reared it's hideously disfigured face once again and I arrived at my tube station only to find that there were no westbound trains open! The sign instead instructed me to try my luck with bus 49. I ran up the stairs out of the tube station and saw, right as I got to the top, that this particular bus was already driving away. The next one was schedule to show up seven minutes later, and the time at this point was about 12:45. I waited patiently and hopped on the bus that was supposedly going to take me in the direction I wanted. Someone lied to me. I ended up getting taken towards Queen's Terrace instead of Queensway (not to be confused with Queen's Gate Terrace where I live). So I had to hop off the bus and then make my way back towards where I came. By this point I just went inside of Hyde park, rented a bicycle after battling with the rental machine, and peddled as fast as I could all the way to Tazas. It was very stressful while it was all happening because I hate to be late to things, but I'm chuckling to myself as I write this all down. That was one way to really wake me up and get me ready for the morning.

     It was so great visiting with Kristina, who I lovingly call Tina K. We had two girls with the same name, but spelled differently. So there was Kristina and Christina. Thus Kristina whose name was spelled with a K became Tina K. I totally started that trend. Anywho, Kristina is from Canada and attended the Study Abroad program in my same group in 2012. Though my group has had a few reunions since then, Tina has always been far away in Canada land. She has been in Europe for a few weeks traveling with her cousin! We sat and visited while eating some delicious Shawarma. It brought back lots of memories and it was fun to see how she was doing! Afterwards we made our way over to the BYU London Center. We rang the doorbell and knocked a few times to see if someone would let us inside to see the changes that were made during the renovation that took place after we left in 2012. No one was answering, so we ended up walking around the whole building, peering in windows. We paid little heed to Kristina's cousin's warnings about the neighbors thinking that we were scoping the place out to rob it. We look far too friendly for that. Then again, I did almost steal a digital tour guide yesterday. They say it's all downhill once you steal your first audio guide.

Reunited at one of our favorite places in London, 27 Palace Court (BYU London)

    When it was time for Tina K to head on her own way I journeyed back towards Hyde Park. The pass that I bought earlier to rent a bike was valid for 24 hours, so I decided to take another bike back to the flats. The system is great because there are bike stands all over the city. Once you purchase a pass that can either go for 24 hours or a week, you go to any of these stands and check in with the card that you paid with originally and you have a bike to use. My return journey was much more peaceful since I was not hurrying to meet one of my favorite Canadians in the process. 

     Dallin returned safely from his author visit and then the two of us made our way over to King's Cross Station where we passed through Platform 9 3/4 to journey to Hogwarts. I have been wanting to go to this for a while! We were at Kings Cross earlier in the trip but the line when we were there was incredibly long, so I opted out. I had been planning to go back with some of the girls but the timing never quite worked out. Dallin is not the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world, but he was incredibly nice and volunteered to go with me. When we arrived at the station the line was still pretty long, but we decided it was time to face that line! 

     Now to explain the situation. Platform 9 3/4 is a platform that the Wizarding world uses in the Harry Potter books to get to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Witches and Wizards can pass through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 to get to this secret platform. Ever since the books took off and the movies were made tourists invaded King's Cross for a chance to get a picture at these platforms. The platform became so busy with people who actually had no interest in actually traveling anywhere that they actually created a designated spot in the station that would be named Platform 9 3/4. It's actually off to the side not really by any of the real platforms. They even installed a travel cart to make it appear as if it is passing through the wall for people to pose with. The last time I visited London it was a small little space that wasn't incredibly busy. It just featured the cart and you walked right up to it and snapped your photo. It has changed drastically. 

     In December a shop was opened up that sold Harry Potter items. This shop then also took over this little corner of the station. Now, the cart has been fitted with luggage items and a little owl. There's a professional photographer as well as an assistant that stands by with the different house scarves for you to wear, as well as an assortment of wands. And with the changes the crowds have become huge! With my last venture here I walked right up to the platform, but today Dallin and I waited in line for a bit over 30 minutes for the photo. Fortunately they are great and still let you take a free photo even if you don't want one taken by the professional photographer. The assistant instructs you on how to stand and even holds the scarf up so it looks like it's flowing as you pass through. It's all very well organized and though it seems completely silly it was really fun. I wore a blue scarf for Ravenclaw, the house most known for seeking knowledge. It was so ridiculous but what is a book nerd to do?

A quick glimpse at the line to the platform

So here is the platform in 2012...

...And here it is now! Off to Hogwarts!

    In the evening I decided that since I technically had a bike at my disposal for about 17 more hours I was going to go on a ride through Hyde Park. I walked over to the park, which looked breathtaking as always, and mounted my trusty stead. I named my bike Crispin. I then took a long ride through the designated bike path, a map of which I placed below. It was great because there are so many places designated for the bikes that I didn't really have to worry about traffic or people for most of it. There was one point where I accidently got off the path and suddenly found myself amidst the busy London traffic. Woops! Fortuantely even the main roads have designated bike spots, so I survived! I made my way back to the park path pretty quickly and resumed my original journey! Due to the nature of my journey through the park today, I didn't get as many photos as I normally would, but still snuck in some of the following.

The bike racks in the park 

OH LOOK! A giant....rock. 

Here's the map of the journey. I started down by Queen's Gate and made my way around

    Following my adventures in the park, I returned to the flats where I have resumed a very casual stance of sitting on my bed and working on homework, the only solace coming in the form of Coke and Digestive Cookies (they taste so much better than their awful name implies). The essays keep coming and I keep writing away. The crazy part is that our final homework assignments will be due next Monday, then all that will be left are our finals! I can't believe it is already so close! 

As a final side not, these are the things that tempt me EVERY DAY