London day 1: Warner Bros. Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter

As I write this Toni and I have just arrived back at our hostel after a whole day at Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Leavesden. Getting there was a littoe adventure in itself, since we had to change tube once, then get on a train and then get on a shuttle bus xD But it worked out alright. At the tour I took about 300 pictures and I won't be showing them all here. Toward the end of the tour my camera died so I had to rely on my phone's camera, which isn't that good. I don't have the cord or the memory card converter for that either so those pictures most definately won't show up in this post.

After getting to Watford Junction (before the shuttle bus) it was already obvious that the Tour was somewhere close and the bus was easily recognised.

 Getting there we had some time left after getting our tickets and so we took some pictures on the front and then walked around in the souvenir shop before getting in line for our time slot.

 The first room contained a series of screens showing movie posters from all over the world. I was quick in finding the Swedish, Japanese and Korean ones :) After a short introduction we were all lead into a small cinema where the Studio Tour was introduced by Daniel, Emma and Rupert. I felt like crying when I saw that WB-logo along with the music. So many feelings and memories :D Then the screen was rolled up into the ceiling and revealed the entrance to the Studio Tour. We started out in the Great Hall, which was absolutely beautiful!

The room afterwards was the room we spent the most time in - about 2 hours. Looking at props, taking pictures and I even went on the flying simulator and bought a picture that came off it. So I now have a photo of me in a Ravenclaw robe on a broomstick above Hogwarts!!! :D:D:D:D

After this huge room we got to the outdoors part. It felt like walking into a wall of heat after being used to the AC indoors and walking out into 30 degrees was kind of a shock. I had already decided that I'd get a Butterbear there and Toni also got ice cream for us :) The Butterbear was shockingly sweet, like absolutely, shockingly, extremely sweet. But it still tasted good. I liked it, but I don't think I could drink more than one at any one time xD

Outdoors was also the Knight Bus, Privet Drive, Potters' Cottage and the Hogwarts Bridge among other things :)

Getting indoors we arrived at the Creature Department and this is where my camera died. So all of the Creature Department along with the Model Department and Diagon Alley ended up on my phone. But here are the pictures of the Creature Department that I managed to take with my phone:

After that we exited to the souvenir shop and having been through it earlier (which turned out to be quite a genius move due to the amount of people after Tours) I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. So I got one Marauder's Map, one official guide to the Tour for the memories, one Chocolate Frog, the three small books (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Qudditch Through the Ages, Tales of Beedle the Bard) in their Hogwarts library collector's edition, and a Slytherin goblet. Interestingly enough the card I got in my Chocolate Frog was that of Salazar Slytherin xD

After a small break in the café we got on the shuttle bus back to Watford Junction, then on the train from Watford to Euston, the tube from Euston to Green Park, and finally the tube from Green Park to Hammersmith :)

Sommar Rock Svedala

The last three days it has been the annual summer festival at my tiny hometown called Sommar Rock Svedala :) It's pretty much the only big happening each year in that village and since I get tickets for free it's always worth taking time to visit the festival every year. It's also something of a tradition since I've been going there every year since I was about 8 or 9.

Thursday: On Thursday Toni and I went there to see Amaranthe and Helloween. Originally W.A.S.P. was supposed to play, but since they cancelled their summer tour (again) Helloween took their place. And I guess they were okay, but I would much rather have seen W.A.S.P.. Amaranthe was at Metaltown too this year, but I decided that I'd see them at Sommar Rock instead. They would be my kind of band if it wasn't for the fact that the female singer's voice sounds so much like pop that their music takes on an involuntary twist that sounds like Eurovision meets metal, and I can't decide if I like it or not. But it was worth it seeing them live.

Friday: We went there to see Joddla med Siv and Magnus Uggla. Joddla is usually a lot of fun, but this time they had moved them out of the tent to a larger stage outdoors, which sort of ruined it all. The intimacy kind of evaporated :/ Magnus Uggla however was just as great as ever on stage. And the crowd was going wild to his songs. It was a lot of fun. Friday was the best day of the festival and I really can't understand why they didn't put Uggla as the last act of the year on Saturday night :/

Saturday: All we wanted to see on Saturday was Perikles. But just as with Joddla they had moved them outdoors and totally ruined everything. They have a thing towards the end of their gigs where the entire audience sits down on the ground and for a part of the songs stays there before the song itself tells people to get up again. It was totally ruined. Didn't work outside the tent. A large portion of the audience didn't even understand that they were supposed to sit down, and all I could think was: "DON'T WE DO THIS EVERY YEAR, YOU MORONS?! USE YOUR FRIGGIN' BRAINS FOR ONCE!" But no, and I felt sort of disappointed that a band that usually got a very mixed audience going wild, couldn't deliver :(

Tomorrow Toni and I are going to London, so my next update will be from the UK! :D

Top 10 favourite calm rock songs

1. Sixx:A.M. - "Skin"

2. The Pretty Reckless - "You"

3. Stone Sour - "Through Glass"

4. Slipknot - "Snuff"

5. Alice Cooper - "Might as Well Be on Mars"

6. Within Temptation - "Bittersweet"

7. Sum 41 - "Crash"

8. The Pretenders - "I'll Stand By You"

9. Seether feat. Amy Lee - "Broken"

10. Lordi - "Children of the Night"

Metaltown 2013

On Wednesday I got up early to pack the last stuff into my bag and get to the train station. Then I got on the train to Gothenburg. After 3 hours I arrived and was met by Toni, Timo and Fredrik. I dumped by stuff into Fredrik's car and then Toni, Timo and I went downtown to buy ourselves some alcohol for the festival, while Fredrik drove to the festival area to park etc. First we went to buy alcohol and then we went to Shock to switch our tickets to wristbands before going to the bus stop where to rented buses pick up people to go to the festival. When we got to the festival area it had started drizzling and it wasn't warm anymore :( We met up with Fredrik who already had his tent. We put up his tent and left our alcohol there, and while the boys went to fetch all our stuff I sat in Fredrik's tent to escape the rain and watch our stuff. When they arrived we put up all the tents and the party tent. The rain had really started pouring now and the ground was getting muddier by the minute.

When all the preparations were done we started up the music and the drinking. One of the more memorable moments was when Gangnam Style randomly started playing and a lot of people currently building their camps stopped to dance just like that xD We had a little dancing in our own camp too :) The random funny songs continued that evening along with the fun company of a fellow southern Swede and his little buddy. In the end Timo's stool broke apart and he found himself on the ground xD It was hilarious xD

Thursday started off rainy as well and the muddy ground got even muddier. We got a lot of new neighbours this day and one of them were the camp of Falk Pink Hat and the Giant 16-Year Old. Toni, Timo and I went into town to buy Timo a new chair and to buy some wellingtons for myself and Toni. And to have sushi for lunch :3 When we got back we got a visit from Borat and a random fun guy. Also we had some fun with the mud, cause you gotta make the best of things :P Then we went to see Turbonegro. In the evening the camp got a visit from a girl with a horse mask that was passed around. We tried to drink and smoke with it on (which didn't work out too well). Then some festival workers showed up and had some fun with the mask with us. When the workers left so did the girl with the mask.

On Friday the weather started getting better and we went into town partly to eat at Subway and partly because Timo had gotten sick during the night and wanted to go home so we saw him off at the train station. When we got back Toni and I went to see All That Remains and Soilwork. Back at the camp things were strange as per usual. Turned out that Ricky had some kind of Red Riding Hood hood... Him and Madde first came up with a ball game/drinking game, then a word game/drinking game... All the while singing along to music and just talking and having fun. In the evening we went to see Slipknot, which easily was the best concert of the year. I had no voice left when we got back to the camp :D

Saturday (yesterday) was the last day and the weather was brilliant. Toni, me and Ricky went into town to eat at NFC (KFC knock-off) and to buy some more alcohol since we weren't sure what we had would be enough. When we got back to the camp Fredrik and his friend had moved Ricky's tent and pushed it into Timo's old (now abandoned) tent just to see if it would fit - which it did. At the place where his tent used to be they had built a small tent with accessories xD The party tent had broken in one place the night before and they had fixed it by taping Timo's broken stool to the broken piece xD Later that evening we went to see Hardcore Superstar.

Afterwards we played around a little with Falk's Ozzy glasses and Madde came up with a drinking game which she played with Falk.

On our way to the last concert of the festival: Korn, we found an awesome tent in the shape of an old Volkswagen bus xD

Today we got up early to pack our stuff and (some of us) our tents. Then we stuffed ourselves into Fredrik's car and drove to the central station where I and my bag got off. We ate together at Subway before they started driving back home north and I got on my train south. I had to wait around for a bit, but I still got home earlier than them :3

Getting home I immediately poured myself a bath - which would have felt great, but the feeling was somewhat killed by the agony of soaking my badly burnt legs in hot water. I forgot to put sunscreen on them while I put it on my arms and face xD

But being able to sleep in my own bed tonight will probably be the best feeling ever :D