I did a thing yesterday. A very exciting and magical thing (hooray!). I went to Universal Studios Hollywood to check out the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction that opened recently. 

The theme park covers two main Harry Potter setting staples: Hogsmeade (one of the two main shopping districts located in Britain discussed in the HP universe where the dating happens) and the Hogwarts castle (the location where magical British schoolchildren go to learn about magic and take standardized tests and get injured by magical creatures and then get indoctrinated with crazy radical ideals by evil racists trespassing school grounds). 

Anyway, I had a lot of fun. Too bad there aren't that many things to do. The little Hogsmeade village had a few shops and the Hogwarts castle only included the HP flagship ride. 

Below are photos of my Harry Potter adventure. The pictures are not in any particular order, I am very sorry for my lack of punctiliousness in advance! Also it should be expected by now that the photos are of bad quality and all the pictures were taken with shadows hitting the focal point juuuust wrong. And I must be a lopsided person because none of the photos are centered and a good number of the pictures are at this weird "upskirt angle"...



 I ordered a cup of frozen butterbeer. It tasted like butterscotch candy. Needless to say, the beverage was way too sweet. Also the thing set me back six dollars.
 This was lunch at the Three Broomsticks. The plate to the left is lemon chicken. It tastes like the rotisserie chicken you get at Costco. The chicken plate included a pile of oily potatoes and a very delicious corn on the cob. The kernels were popping fresh. The plate on the right is some stew with a very weak salad.
 The Hogwarts Express plus the train conductor and two white ladies.
 Inside Ollivander's... which shouldn't even be in Hogsmeade really. His shop is located in Diagon Alley!!!!* Ollivander's is home to the only attraction in the Hogsmeade village. You wait in line for an hour or two and then get shuffled into a little room where the wandmaker chooses an aspiring witch/wizard-to-be to demonstrate the wand-choosing-witch/wizard process. Once that is done, you get shuffled again into the commercialized section of the wand shop.
 The ceiling of the Three Broomsticks. There seems to be an unnecessary amount of beam-age but the interior of the restaurant looks pretty cool.
 Breakfast at the Three Broomsticks (yes we ate here twice).
 An English breakfast and a continental breakfast too. Breakfast prices are a lot friendlier. Drinks are included (make note that that is not the case during lunchtime)! English food is not very good. But I did enjoy the fruit. I also ordered pumpkin ale which kinda tasted as though a Thanksgiving pie (an amalgam of pumpkin, apple, and pecan- basically all the pies) did a little vomit in my mouth... actually the pumpkin ale wasn't that bad. It was too sweet, but Thanksgiving pie liquid form works.


 Breakfast food. The yellow is egg.
 Sadly this is the best photo I have from yesterday.
 Inside the Owl Post. 
Upskirt owl.
 Inside the Owl Post. So many packages!
 Tower of brown paper packages tied up with string. This shop must be a pain to dust.


 Stuffed owls and creepy owl mugs.
 The most uncomfortable form of transportation for a British witch/wizard. Even with the most advanced cushioning charm, mounting a flying broomstick simply cannot be very enjoyable. 
 The Monster Book of Monsters
 ...because I couldn't fit all this into one picture apparently.
 Hogsmeade
 Waiting in line for the Flight of the Hippogriff ride. You can see Hogwarts castle from the distance.

 A cart with some slug repellent. Parks and Recreations taught me that coffee grounds does the job too. Or was that for snails? They're pretty much the same thing imo.
 Sirius'/Hagrid's flying motorbike plus sidecar for Harry Potter to sit in. And Harry Potter did that at least twice. And Ronald Weasley did some snickering while mounting an uncomfortable broomstick. 
 The sorting hat... inside the Hogwarts castle while waiting in line for the flagship ride, which was a very good ride. 
 Moving portraits.
 The Fat Lady. She guards the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. The cinematic Fat Lady got fatter and was basically a different lady Book 1 to Book 5 according to the Harry Potter Wiki.
 House points using a colored rocks counter. Poor Ravenclaws. They should be the brightest and house points are normally awarded for good homework skills so I do not know what went wrong there.
 Nonmoving portraits. Or maybe they did move around and I was not very observant.
 Before the ride starts, you are led into a rental locker station so you can put away your things. My index finger had a hard time opening my locker (those finger scan things h a t e me) so a Hogwarts employee manually opened my locker instead.
 A photo of something?
 The flying car that saved Harry Potter and his red headed friend from spiders.
 360 degree view of the car.
 Okay more like 270 degree.
 Hogwarts castle!
 Entrance to Hogwarts castle and the line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The ride was amazing. You get seated onto a robotic arm and then the arm moves around while you look at 3D stuff. Also you get spat on which is not too pleasant.
 I will grumble about the inaccuracy of this shop being here and not in Diagon Alley one last time.*
 Owl Post!
 Owl Post again!
 The location for Harry Potter and Cho Chang's first (and pretty much last... yes Harry is not very good at the wining and dining and romancing) date.
 Restroom... I didn't go in here because Harry Potter world was way crowded and I figured if I needed to do the business I'll use a different toilet. But now I regret not checking the bathrooms out. Maybe a lavatory ghost would appear. I wouldn't know now. :(
 I don't think this was a real store.
 Entrance to Three Broomsticks. Breakfast is not busy. But there will be a long line during lunchtime.
 The place to go to buy a $12 chocolate frog.
 One day Zonko's will be bought out by George Weasley and then turned into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes outlet.
 All the people at Hogsmeade.
 What are spell limits?
 Harry Potter on the streets.

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