1. Olden 2. Flam 3. Our table 4. Stavanger 5. Olden
I haven't written anything on here since the Cruise so I thought it was about time. It was wonderful, it really was. The weather was absolutely beautiful which helped and Norway was just Stunning. The feeling of rocking back and forth on water was difficult to get used to - especially when you're trying to get a shower and it feels like you're in the sea - but I eventually grew accustom to it. It helped that I had mum's seasickness bands. The food was delicious and our waiters were nice, everything was perfect... except the fact that my dear mother managed to give me her cold so a couple of days in I was a sniffling wreck just waiting to be pounced on and quarantined.
The Oriana herself is a lovely ship, one of the smallest P&O ships I think and she did look old in places but she was still truly grand. We were in the Peninsular restaurant in the evenings on a table of eight however on the first evening my grandma and I were the only two that turned up, that was interesting but never mind, it was the first night. The second day was spent at sea and the fog was just billowing in so it looked like there wasn't going to be much hope on the weather front but I'm glad that changed. I generally just explored the ship that day; that's the one thing I found, there wasn't much to do. There were a few talks but not many and a few classes but not the amount you would expect. I guess I was just disappointed in that but I survived with my books. We met Mary and Tom the second night, they were on our table and a lovely couple. It was hard to understand their Welsh accent at times but they were very nice people. The next night Lawrence and Anne joined us and then two ladies after that (I feel bad that I never caught their names).
Norway is so beautiful though, everywhere you go you're surrounded by snow covered mountains. Looking at the photographs you wouldn't expect it to have been such amazing weather either - and well to be honest I hadn't expected such good weather at all, I packed for cold weather, not boiling hot sunbathing weather! I had to live in jeans and boots most days, dying until we got back to the ship where I could just stick some dress on.
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The week after the cruise I bought myself a new laptop - which hasn't broken in the first week this time! Hell yes! He's a Toshiba and he's lovely. I wasn't keen at first but I was talked around into buying him and it's nice to have a laptop that works again. The internet however is another story, BT Broadbrand has just been diabolical recently, crashing at least once a week and then going extremely slowly when it is working. Fun!
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1. Harry Potter Studio Tour Tickets 2. High-waisted Avengers Shorts 3. Alan Rickman's wand 4. The display from the Yule Ball 5. Ron's howler from Chamber of Secrets 6. Weasley's Wizard Wheezers
I bought some high-waisted Avengers shorts that I absolutely love. Just to through that in there. I love them, they're amazing, and so comfortable! So anyway, The Harry Potter Studio Tour! Becki bought me tickets for my birthday and we went last week. We traveled down on the Monday, stuffed ourselves silly with Pizza Hut and then went to the Studio Tour on the Tuesday. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. It's strange to see everything in person, to see how small some of the sets were - for example I was expecting Snape's classroom to be quite a bit bigger than it actually was. The graphics team must've been in their element when creating all of the Weasley products as well, they were just so colourful and intricate - Becki was incredibly jealous to say the least. I loved how much detail had gone into everything and how they had even written Lily's letter to Sirius. The weather was brilliant as well so that was a bonus. We tried Butterbeer and it wasn't what either of us was expecting... it was incredibly sweet and a lot fizzier than I expected; it was okay but I wouldn't try it again. I would however love to go to the Studio Tour again at some point in the future, it's just a shame it's such a long drive.
