The Birthplace of Harry Potter.

Throughout my many, many years as a Potterhead, I have been to many, many places associated with the Harry Potter World.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter? CHECK!

Leavsden Studio Tour? CHECK!

Real Life Set Locations? CHECK!

But somewhere I'd been meaning to go for many years is The Elephant House Cafe in Edinburgh, where Rowling (atleast once) sat and wrote Harry Potter. Dubbed "The Birthplace of Harry Potter" I don't know why I'd never been before and this week I did. It wasn't all that exciting but I really want to talk about the bathroom!

Yes, I said bathroom.

The bathroom was a work of art.

Potterheads from across the world had come and left their mark. They put up quotes, and recited entire chapters. They made Potterhead puns or maybe just signed there names but they were all there. Real people who had come through those doors, people I would never meet from Canada or Mexico but all people pulled together by a common thread.

 They came knowing they would see nothing about Harry Potter or the secrets behind where it came from hidden within the walls, but they came anyway and they left something in what I would call a very fancy cafe' for more and more Potterheads to see and add to. Breathing life into old walls and making the ordinary, extraordinary. And isn't that what the books did in the first place.

Naturally I was immediately compelled to leave my own dedication, but mine was neither pun nor quote, but it stood with the Thank You Graffiti. Calling to a woman who was not there and probably wouldn't be again. But just wanting to put into words, in that moment that I felt so much love for so many strangers I would never meet. I wanted to Thank, the world, the universe anyone who would listen for the gift of these books and all books after that. It's a wonderful life.

"For all the years I was lost and alone, these books saved me. Thank you."

2017 UPDATE!

I returned to The Elephant House!

They also make great Jacket Potatoes!