One of the coolest things about studying abroad in England was that wherever you went it seemed inevitable that you would run in to Harry Potter connections. The picture above is one of the outside corridors that was one of the many on-location sets for the first couple of Harry Potter films. The corridors belonged to the Durham Cathedral in Durham, England – about an hour bus ride from my location. All of England seems to have been indispensable to the movie. There’s nothing quite like visiting a location like the aforementioned one and then going back to watch the Harry Potter movie it was in with your flat mates. England’s neighbor, Scotland also was inescapable of its relationship to the film – Edinburgh in particular. During my weekend in Edinburgh I was able to stop by The Elephant Café, which is considered to be the birthplace of Harry Potter. Later that evening my friends and I went on a Harry Potter tour throughout the town where we learned tons of obscure facts about author J.K. Rowling and her potential intentions with the names she used in the book, and more. Studying in the homelands of a book series so famous and quintessential, especially to my generation, was pretty spectacular.
Shelby Newsome
University of Sunderland
Sunderland, England