Author: PigTailz

I'm the girl with no name.

Bici Para Robar

I have been making gifts for friends, and they keep getting stolen. I’m feeling a bit like a famous artist. Instead of getting mad about it, I’ve gotten quite curious where the little guys are going, so I’ve made a bit of a game.

I am learning how to make wire bicycles. I decided to put the first bicycle out to steal and parked it in a bike rack. My friend decided to be the one to steal it! He attached it to his own bike, but it was stolen a few weeks later. The mushroom I made for another friend’s restaurant was also stolen.

We live in a city where people visit from all over the world. I regularly meet people that have come from far away places like Thailand, Germany, Australia, New Zealand. They are here to make the Camino de Santiago.

I wanted to know how far my creations traveled, so I decided to make a game of it.

You can check back here if you want to see what happens or follow @xgf2b on Instagram.

Harry Potter Studio Tour, London, England

I promised my daughter a trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London for her birthday. Unfortunately, I purchased my plane tickets before purchasing tickets to the Studio Tour. When I went to the website to purchase the studio tickets, they were sold out. I was heartbroken. I contacted the company through the website and they were so helpful! They sent me to an affiliate site (Golden Tours) that carries tickets paired with transportation to and from the studio. This was a much better situation than trying to arrange my own transport as the studio is about 2 hours away from where we were staying.

The bus picked us up from the designated location within 5 or 10 minutes of the scheduled time. The accomadations were quite comfortable. We had plenty of space, the driver was nice. The tour comes with a time window and you are directed to return to the bus on time for the return trip. They said it is okay if we are late, that they will do their best to fit us on a later bus, but that there were no guarantees and we should be prepared to find alternative transportation. We were given a 4 hour block to make the tour.

At first I was dismayed by how crowded the studio seemed. We queued in a long line and were gathered together into a large theater for a short film. The film ended and we shuffled in a large group into the great hall. We were there for a special event that included some of the animatronics that went into the creation of Hagrid as well as the hanging clandles in the dining hall.

After this point, we were able to spread out through the exhibits and it quickly became possible to take pictures.

Time in this room was more than sufficient, but limited. I thought we would be ushered through the entire tour in with the large group, so I hurried my daughter a little through the next space thinking we would have to rush to see everything before being told to move along. There was so much to see.

After leaving the dining hall, the door opened onto statues and ceilings and video screens and … I quickly realized the timing of the movie theater and the dining hall were only to allow people to spread out through the studio. Access was available from this point to the end meaning we could spread out and meet back and revisit for the rest of the trip.

The potions classroom, Dumbledor´s chambers, boys dormitory, and the moving stairway were among the first things we saw.

As you walk through the exhibits, you can see how detailed are the furniture and artwork. They show parts of the development of the various costumes and sets so you can see the effort and technology that went into them. There are places to touch and intereact with the sets. Honestly, I preffered this to any of the museums we visited. This is art. This is so many forms of art coming together to create a fully immersive experience for visitors.

There were some greenscreen photos and videos that were pretty fun. My daughter wanted to do the broomstick ride of course. It was 40£ ($51) to order all the videos and photos in a digital format with one printed photo. Pretty standard themepark package.

I really enjoyed the spiders in the Forbidden Forest.

I´m going to be honest here. I usually try to only say nice things, but… Lunch in the studio was not my favorite. I tried the vegetarian option for an entree. It was so flavorless that I couldn´t eat it. We ordered vegetarian chili fries to share and that was enough to hold me over, but still not great. The staff was incredibly friendly though. The cups for the butterbeer are meant to be taken as souveneirs. Since many people don´t realize this, the staff rinses the cups and leaves them out for other visitors who cannot afford them or want more.

Outside the cafeteria were a number of larger features. The covered bridge, the triple decker bus, the greenhouse, and 4 Privet Drive were all together in the plaza.

After leaving the outdoor plaza, we entered into the next segment of the studio tour. There was quite a lot regarding the technical aspects of the engineering and videography. The goblin hands were so realistic that it genuinely looked like old hands and skin even close enough to touch it. And then there was Gringotts. I couldn´t get a clear photo, but the marble arches and floors were stunning.

Diagon Alley was also pretty amazing.

The grand finale was the Hogwarts castle. This miniature used for the overhead shots and zoom scenes was so impressive. Each tiny detail was made by hand and affixed to the castle. And by this I mean each of the roof tiles was individually placed. It took 86 artists working together to construct the model. It was the equivalent of 74 years worth of work for a single artist.

This made for a fantastic adventure. It was a bit expensive, but not any different from other tourist attractions. It took between 3 and 3.5 hours to walk through. Fortunately we saved plenty of time for the shop. There were so many things to look at. And in the end, we made it to the bus exactly on time.

Kinga Haudek Artista Joyera, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Kinga Haudek Artista Joyera is one of my favorite stores in Santiago de Compostela. This small jewelry shop on rua San Pedro is located in the historic old town. The stone walls and dark wood window frames lend perfect contrast to her organic designs. You can imagine yourself in the same place, making the same purchase 200 years in the past.

When you walk in, you may find Kinga hard at work crafting something new. Everything is crafted by her hand in the store. Her name is the brand, and the moment you meet her you will understand why. Lost in focus, she always looks a little surprised and delighted to see visitors. Her smile will be warm and welcoming when she invites you into the store.

Kinga is Hungarian by birth and Galician by spirit. A brilliant academic, avid adventurer, and an artist by nature. She studied sociology in Hungary, silversmithing at the Mestre Mateo School of Art and Design, and obtained the official Galician Craftsman Certification. Her curious and intelligent nature shines through each piece and gives a brief glimpse of something she saw or felt on one of her many adventures. Kinga is a highly talented artist with designs inspired by elements of the city and the sea.

For photos of her work, I suggest visiting the website. I could not do justice to her creations. Instead, I will document the jewelry making class I attended with my daughter!

Kinga offers classes in her workshop to make some of the more simple pieces. The price of the course includes all of the supplies needed and a half day of instruction. Instruction is limited to groups of 3 people to insure a quality experience for everyone.

Our course began at 10:00 in the morning. She walked us through the process in both Spanish and English. I am not sure how many languages Kinga speaks, but the course is available in English, Spanish, Galician, and Hungarian for sure.

I was admittedly a bit converned when she handed me this little pieces of silver and told me I was expected to turn them into something beautiful on the first try. But hey… I´ll give it a try.

She told us how to properly hammer each piece. We all set to work at our own station. We had a variety of tools at our disposal and a varying weights of hammer.

We would hammer a bit and then heat them before returning to more hammering. I was a little nerrvous to use a torch for the first time, but it was much easier than I anticipated.

I was a bit too timid and struggled to properly align my strikes. Kinga came and lent a hand to put me in the right direction. She helped me to correct the curvature for a more symmetrical pair.

My daughter, on the other hand, was quite adept at this process and managed to complete hammering more quickly than anyone else. This is her gloating.

After a bit of hammering and heat and I was pretty excited to have these to show for my effort!

Once the earrings were shaped, we oxidized them with an acidic sulfur compound and took a short break while they soaked. Next, we learned to craft and solder the earring posts, trim and file the excess, and finally to polish them on her rotary buffer.

The end result was exciting. Each pair was unique even though we all started with identical pieces of silver, similar tools, and used the same methods.

We completed our earrings around 14:00. With a sense of accomplishment and pride in our artistic eneavors, we all posed together for a final class photo and had a little lunch at a restaurant down the street on Rua San Pedro.

I think my favorite part of this was the sense of pride my daughter took away from the activity. She came home and called our family back in the US to tell them what a great job she had done. It was funny listening when she did not know that I could hear her. ¨I was so good at hammering. I finished before everyone else. I was much better at it than Mom.¨

Would highly recommend this activity when visiting Santiago de Compostela. You would need to contact Kinga before planning the adventure to see which classes might be available and which weekends. But definitely something worth doing in Santiago.

Fervenza de Toxa, Galicia, Spain

Fervenza de Toxa is only a short drive from Santiago de Compostela. It was not a long hike day, but a couple of short scenic trails. It looked like there was more to see if I wanted to follow the river further out, but I did not go too far this day.

I started my adventure with the trail to the bottom of the falls. It had rained so much recently that the main falls were difficult to approach from the bottom. The rivers were full and the water was coming with such great force that it created a strong wind. The air was saturated with a mist that left visibility low. I could barely keep my eyes open in the wind and my phone was instantly soaked in my brief effort to take this photo. A great finale to the long summer drought that hit Spain the last year.

Following the path down the river, there was another smaller fall to see. I could get a lot closer here.

With the rains, the views along this path were pretty incredible. Everything felt so alive. It was fresh and green. Walking here feels a lot like stepping into the fairytales my grandmother used to read. I joke a lot about being careful to enter the abandoned houses because we don´t want to anger the brujas o hadas.

After this, I took the trail up the hill to see the views of the waterfalls from the top. I was amazed to find the views to be equally spectacular from this angle. I think the photos are better from the top, but my curiosity is better saatiated exploring the setas and fungi and helechos up close. If you visit, I think you really have to take both trails in this place.

This is the fervenza de Toxa from a distance. I hope to revisit this place in the summer when the water is lower so I can get the view from the bottom as well.