| Monday, 1-Aug-2005 00:00 |
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London HP Fan Trip Day 4
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The second day on the fantrip was spent riding on the one and only Hogwarts Express! Yep... the actual train used in the movies! :satisfied_nod:
After breakfast, buses came to pick all of us up from our hotels and took us to the local train station. Nope, we didn't go aboard the Hogwarts Express via Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. We didn't want the Muggles to know our little secret, see... so we had to pretend that we're getting on a normal train, which later magically transformed into the Hogwarts Express once we were out of Muggles' sights! Hehe.
The train ride was 6 hours long, and it took us right up to Carlisle. During the ride the groups of people all had their turn at sitting in the carriages which had the compartments used in the filming of HP movies (only two carriages were fitted with these compartments, the rest of the carriages had normal seats and tables, aside from the First Class carriage which was used for serving of refreshments and conducting classes). We had oodles of fun on the train, what with all us HP fans acting out scenes and lines from the movies! There were also fun activities conducted, such as Divination class (conducted by Professors 'Treloopy' and 'Treloony'! LOL), Dragon Hunting class... they also sold first-day covers on board, commemorating the train ride itself. The entire ride was a blast!
The actual Hogwarts Express head is a steam engine, so it was only affixed when the train had entered the countryside (because it was noisier, as well as it goes at a slower speed as compared to normal engine). Everytime we passed by some quaint old train station, or some of the houses out in the country, the train would blow its whistle and all the folks and kids outside would wave at us passing by! I think the journey of the train was publicized, because at all the stations we passed by there were families with little children standing and waiting around to see the train and take pictures! So all of us on board felt so special, like we were indeed wizards and witches being carried off to another school term at Hogwarts and these Muggles were there to see us off!! :D
We stopped at Carlisle for about an hour, where everyone got off to stretch our legs, take more pictures, and get lunch. Then we boarded the train again for the ride back to Oxford. On the way back we had more games and classes, and Weird and I both won a lucky draw prize!! Can you imagine? I've never been lucky AT ALL at winning lucky draws... and suddenly, both our names got called for the two prizes our team was handing out. Hehe.. must be some kind of magical luck going around us. I won myself a fantastic book (The Plot Thickens... Harry Potter Investigated), and Weird won this special magic card set. Yeay us! :horay:
We reached Oxford at dusk, and everyone was pooped once back at the hotel. Weird and I chucked our stuff in our room and decided to talk a walk around the corner, to the other end of the Oxford Kassam Stadium where there was a small shopping mall (it had several restaurants and a cinema) for dinner. Weird totally freezed her ass off during the walk, but I was happily walking along in my tshirt and skirt.. so I guess all my fats and flubber are working to full use. Heheh. We decided to eat at Frankie & Benny's, an American-style restaurant. Both of us were actually still quite full from our heavy lunch and tea on board the train, but we just wanted to munch on something, so we just had loaded potato skins and caesar salad. Once done we trudged back to the hotel, where Weird caught up with Jeff and Jeannie for a short interview session.
And that was the end of yet another superbly magical day, on board the Hogwarts Express!
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