Jul 30, 2013
One of
the not so sunny days I was in London, I decided to head over to Platform 9
3/4. Its in the northern part of London and a bit out of the way from most of
the other attractions. 
It
just so happens that I went to Platform 9 3/4 on Harry Potter's birthday, July
31. I grew up reading HP and yes, I actually stood in those midnight bookstore
lines to get the new HP books. SO when I got to the platform and saw the giant
snaking line, I thought it was normal. Got in line. Waited and waited. The kids
behind and in front of me were talking excitedly and then I catch THE sentence
"It's Harry's Birthday!" Face palm to the head, I totally came on the
wrong day! Oh well, I was already here. So I waited some more until I started
thinking about lunch. I actually only moved less than 10 steps since I got in
line. Seriously, this was the wrong day to come. 
Got
out of line only to get in line to get a salami and cheese sandwich with an
orange fanta. The orange fanta in actually yellow! At first I thought they gave
me pineapple fanta, then I read the label. Flabbergasted, I sat down where I
could watch the HP line and started eating my giant sandwich. It was delicious. 
I
never got back in line, instead I went to the side near the front, took a photo
of the cart and the platform sign when it was 'empty' (when people were taking
off and putting on the scarf), took a few steps to the left and found myself at
the HP store.
Yes, there is a Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 store right next to the
platform. Of course there is one. It was crowded and lots of flash photography
was abound. Everything was pricey so the only things I did buy were postcards
to send to my big HP fan friends and some chocolate frogs just for kicks.
They had the entire first book on one page! That was pretty cool. I
tried to read a paragraph but the font was way small.
In the back was a makeshift 'Ollivander's wands shop' type of thing
where you can buy your own wand minus the wand choosing you.
All throughout the store there were replicas of characters' wands. The main people in Dumbledore's Army had their wands displayed on the wall. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna.
All throughout the store there were replicas of characters' wands. The main people in Dumbledore's Army had their wands displayed on the wall. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna.
The evil main characters' wands were in a display case. Draco,
Bellatrix, someone, Lucius, and a few Deatheaters. There were also Quidditch equipment and memorabilia everywhere, most in glass cases. People were trying on cloaks and scarfs and taking photos with them only to take them off and messily put them back. It was chaos but I enjoyed it.
