History comes alive and childhood dreams come true

So, it's been a couple of days, and those couple of days have been extremely exciting. So if you're up to the task, here's an extremely long post about it all!
If you're just looking for the highlights, though, I'll give you a list for those. Pictures are scattered throughout!

• King's Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4 
• Paddington Station and Paddington Bear 
• Warwick Castle 
• Shakespeare, including Stratford-upon-Avon, seeing King Henry IV Part I performed by the Royal Shakespeare company, and touring the Anne Hathaway Cottage, Mary Arden Farm, Shakespeare's Birthplace, and Trinity Church, where he is buried. 
• Seeing Once on the West End 

Are you ready? Because we're about to delve into history, my childhood dreams, my love for British television, musicals, and a lot of stuff in between. Here goes: 

King's Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4

Finally, I got to go to Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station, the location that the Hogwarts Express sets off from in the Harry Potter books. I've been dreaming of coming here since I was five, and it was everything I wanted it to be. 

The station had so many people coming for Harry Potter that they set up a special area that looks like a trolley going into the wall, and you can take pictures. They even let you borrow a Hogwarts House scarf! 

The girl taking the professional pictures they have available to buy said this was the best jumping picture she had seen all day.

I was so giggly. Also, I got to wear two scarves, as I'm both a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor (and that's official Pottermore sorting, which was designed by J.K. Rowling herself, so I firmly embrace both). 

They have an adorable shop there as well. The wand display was impressive, and I was extremely excited in there. It was the perfect warm-up for the Studio Tour later this month! I could have spent an enormous amount of money...but I just picked up the first book. Fitting that I should get the beginning of the story where it all began.

Paddington Station and a certain marmalade loving bear

Our next stop was another train station connected to literature. When I was a kid, I absolutely loved the Paddington Bear books, about a small bear from Darkest Peru who comes to London and is found by the Brown family, who takes him in an names him after the station where they found him. They're absolutely adorable children's books, and Paddington Station was a must see. 

They have a cute statue portraying the bear at the station.

Once

That night, we went to the West End to see the musical Once. I had heard great things about it, and I was excited because Arthur Darvill, who played the wonderful Rory Williams on Doctor Who was starring. So I was expecting it to be good. However, nothing could have prepared me for how blown away I was. The show was absolutely phenomenal. The music was gorgeous, the story lovely, and the actors so fantastic. I was in tears at the end. In fact, I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write this. I can't even choose a favorite moment from it. Everything was just indescribable. 

We waited outside the theatre after hoping to meet the actors, but sadly they didn't come out.

This is the cast we saw. Seriously, it makes me cry just watching this. 

After that wonderful night, we went home because we knew we were getting up early for our Shakespeare tour. 

That History that comes alive

And it came early. We stumbled out of bed and onto a bus that was at least a half hour late, and made our way out of the city and into the beautiful countryside. 

Our first stop was Warwick Castle. Originally built in 1086, it is steeped in English history. Now, it's quite touristy, but still fun. 

Those touristy things? Yeah, they were awesome. Well, being the BBC nerd that I am, I really loved the BBC Merlin Dragon Tower. It was really cute, and they even had some props from the show! However, no one I was with had seen the show (really, am I the only one who watches these?) So I went by myself.

They had a...well, to put it simply, it was just a really bad wax replica of Colin Morgan, who played Merlin on the show. It was really laughable. But I took a picture anyway. Oh, and have I mentioned how much waxworks freak me out? There were some others throughout the castle, and I jumped every time I saw one.

The castle and it's grounds were lovely, despite the rain. 

Shakespeare

Then it was back on the bus to the Anne Hathaway Cottage, where Shakespeare's wife grew up. The best word for the place would be idyllic. The gardens were simply breathtakingly beautiful. 

One of the gardens was made up of plants that had been mentioned in Shakespeare's works. Each one had a plaque with the relevant quote on it. 

There was also a lot of art in the gardens. I especially liked this one, which was inspired by a passage in King Lear.

Everything about this place just made me want to stay.

Our next destination was the Mary Arden Farm, which belonged to Shakespeare's mother. It is still a working Tudor farm, animals and all!

My favorite part was the birds of prey. They. Were. So. Cool. 

Still convinced this is my Hogwarts owl, and I should have taken it home.

I got about six inches away from this owl. It was huge and kept screeching, and it was AWESOME.

The horse and I had a special bond. Also, I think I look like I should be in some kind of movie in the picture. Maybe something in the Tudor era or something like that. Maybe it's just that my coat hood looks like a cloak hood or something, I dunno.

Aaaaaand then came the tragedy: my camera battery died. And I spent the rest of the day letting other people take pictures of me and seeing everything I wanted to take pictures of. Because everything got really cool after this, including the owl flying past me. So I'll have to collect the pictures from everyone else and post them later. 

After the farm, we jumped on the bus again and went a few minutes up the road to Stratford. It's a charming little village, and Shakespeare's birthplace is right in the middle. The birthplace was interesting. Sometimes it's weird to think of these fantastic writers living normal lives, living in houses in little villages on rivers. We also made the walk down to Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried. I definitely had a moment looking at the Bard's tomb. It was quite the experience. 

After a dinner of fish and chips and a walk along the river, we finished the night by seeing a performance of King Henry IV Part I by the Royal Shakespeare Company. WOW. I was in awe the entire time. The performance was absolutely perfection. The sets, lighting, and music were engrossing. The acting was PHENOMENAL. I couldn't get enough of it. I could go on and on about how much I loved it. Sadly, a lot of our group (including our geography professor) fell asleep at different points. It's hard to be super excited about something when no one else really is. For the sake of the length of this post, though, I'll move on with that. 

We got home about one in the morning, and collapsed into bed. 

The British Museum and Bloomsbury

Today, after sleepily making our way to class, we went on another one of our walks, this time around the British Museum and intellectual London. 

We didn't spend a lot of time in the Museum today, but we are definitely going back! I did get to see the actual Rosetta Stone though. 

Whew! Well, if you made it through all that, yay for you. I hardly made it through writing it! Tomorrow promises to be another exciting day. As someone said to me today, "Everything is amazing for you," and it really is. London is everything I could have ever wanted.