our LAST DAY in Ireland & nerding out over GoT

Today is our LAST DAY of the Ireland leg of the trip! It feels so crazy to think tomorrow I’ll be back in London, considering in my head we’ve only been in Ireland for a week, not 17 days (I think?)

I may as well go through a bit more of my next immediate plans, since we’re up to the next part of the trip. I’m actually going to be back in London for a decent amount of time, 10 days all up. I’ve got some luggage that I’ve left with our friends that I’ll be staying with, and I think I need some solid decompression time before the next section of the adventures (yes, there’s more). I’m hoping to do some normal person things whilst I’m there, like get my hair cut, do some cooking, seeing a couple of movies, just trying to chill for a bit. Obviously I still want to explore, and London is such a great base for day trips out into other places in England so I’m definitely planning a couple of those, but they’ll be weather dependent and only when I feel like being adventurous.

So yeah, that’s my immediate plans coming up, let’s get stuck into today, our last full day in Ireland!

Leaving Belfast this morning around 9am, we really only had one big item on the list today that we had booked, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for months. As soon as we decided to come to Ireland, I knew it would be a non-negotiable that we tour the Game of Thrones Studios! I’m a massive GoT fan, and having done the Harry Potter Studios in London and loved it, it was at the top of my list for this trip. The studios are a 30-minute drive out from Belfast, but you have to park in a separate location and take the shuttle over to it. We thought we were going the wrong way, the carpark is just a section of a big shopping centre, it was very confusing. But we saw a random little building with swords on it so that gave us a pretty decent indication we were in the right place.

Once we got off the shuttle we were right outside the studios, and the whole thing was so cinematic and cool. I got goosebumps I swear, they had the big GoT sign out the front, with the Main Title theme going strong outside, I was getting giddy and I am not joking, giddy. I’ve been looking forward to this for so long guys I don’t think you understand I love this show. As we entered there was a setup with all the figures of House Stark in costume, and as we go through the first door we first had an introductory film situation. The voice doing the whole thing was Nathalie Emmanuel, who played Missandei in the show. I was ecstatic about that, mostly because her voice is so beautiful and I was happy to get to hear more of her. Can you guys just tell how much I was nerding out here? The only thing that annoyed me a tad was that I was with Dad, who hasn’t seen the show, so he didn’t really get why I was so excited to be there.

After the introduction you go through a self-guided tour that takes you through everything, from casting to set design to production to scoring to costumes to locations, everything. As would come as a surprise to absolutely nobody, my favourite part was on the costume design. I think that was also the team’s favourite section, there were so many rooms dedicated to it. It was an incredible feat, what they did with the costume design with that show, it’s unparalleled in anything I’ve seen before and since and probably ever will, so it was surreal to be able to see the actual costumes right in front of me. I have such a love for these costumes largely because how they represent the character’s change and evolution overtime, and when GoT spans that many years you can really see how traumas and events have shaped them as characters.

My favourite example would be in Sansa’s costumes, how she starts very innocent, her gowns flowy and light and colourful, trying to fit in in Kings Landing even when she should be in Northern colours. From her many episodes of trauma, we see her colours darken, she starts to implement more armour-like features into her clothing, which start to imitate Cersei, showing how she was ‘learning’ from her manipulatory tendencies. Then when she fulfills who she really is as Queen in the North she fully embraces her Northern roots, we see her hairstyles return to those reminiscent of Catelyn’s, and more features of the Stark sigil, the direwolf. It’s rare that I think through something so much I want to write an essay about it, but the costuming in GoT would very much qualify an essay-length rant. I’ll stop myself now before I really get going.

Other than the costuming I really loved walking through the Red Keep, which was the most immersive set of the whole experience. You could genuinely walk right through it, which was so cool. And this wasn’t a replica, which I kept forgetting. These were the actual sets. The Great Hall of Winterfell for example, it’s still got the bloodstains on the floor from where Arya (finally) killed Littlefinger (fake blood of course but still). That’s so cool! We took our time wandering through everything, cause if Dad’s going to read every plaque at a Renaissance art museum, you best believe I’m reading every single thing they want to tell me about Game of Thrones.

I (of course) had to buy a little Stark keyring to go with my Ravenclaw one from the Harry Potter studios on my keys. I was a bit disappointed to learn they didn’t have any Stark t-shirts at the moment as they were all sold out. I mean I get it, it’s House Stark, but I was a bit disappointed, I was really hoping for an elite pyjama shirt, but oh well.

Driving on from the best 2 hours of the trip (arguably) we continued onto our last night of accommodation in Ireland! The weather was unfortunately not the best, and though we were originally planning to go exploring in the nearby forests in the afternoon, we got too comfy at the Airbnb and I think we’re going to just be cozy and watch the rain. Our Airbnb tonight is a loft-style apartment, with a full wall of windows right in front, so we get an incredible view, it’s so lovely.

We’ve got an early start tomorrow, it’s still an hour’s drive to Dublin, and we’ve got to drop the hire car back before we can catch our flight at 9am, I think we have to leave here around 5:30am, so definitely planning an early night tonight. Let’s hope we survive and make it back to London without wanting to kill each other. You never know!

Currently MIA,

Lauren x