Days... ugh... not sure really

Sorry for not blogging for a little while, as you will find out we have had a few dramas and haven't been able to get on to the net. :) Thank you so much for all the prayers, we are definitely seeing the effects of them over the last few days.

So after our lovely night by the fire at the hotel, while it was -14 degrees outside, we found ourselves at the famous Loch Ness. It was beautiful! We had a bus ride to the Loch, with a guided commentary, and a cruise down the Loch - surrounded by snow covered hills. The cruise ended at Urquhart Castle ruins, which was large and ruiney enough even to satisfy Bek. So beautiful covered in snow. We even saw Nessie! She sends her love and kisses. Here's a really credible photo:

Just a side note: we are a bit homesick for Scotland - the people are a lot nicer and so helpful. Mostly because everyone here (London) is Indian. But they are all cranky and dismissive, always making us feel stupid. Which isn't hard, but still. We have come across some really lovely people, though.

So. Getting from Inverness to London. Originally we had planned on hiring a car and driving down, but we quickly realised with all the crashes and snow, this wasn't going to work. So, after our Loch Ness experience we decided to take the train. Very expensive, but only 8 hours instead of 12 on the bus. So we get on the train at 3pm (here we go, I hear you saying). Half an hour delay to start, but after 3 hours we got to Glasgow. Then began the mad rush (as our train was late, we had 5 minutes to make it to Glasgow Central from Glasgow Queen street for the connecting train to London). It was only a 5 minute run, in which Bek almost died. Not for lack of fitness, mind, but she is still suffering from her manflu (ok, not manflu). We got there, panting, just in time to see our train had been delayed. Sigh of relief. So we waited in queue for a while, and Bek went to the loo, not realising (as we never seem to remember) that it costs 30p to get in to public toilets. Thankfully a nice security guard took pity on her and let her in for free. :) Told you there were some nice people.

So we waited in line, and I decided it would be a good idea to get some food, as it was 6.30pm and we would be on the train until 11.30pm. Little did we know. Anyway the line actually moved while I was getting burgers, and so another mad dash to the train, but it didn't matter. Only added to the tension. We finally left, but got caught at Preston some hours later, where we waited on the train for 3 and a half hours for the other conductor, who was stuck down the line. Somewhere down the line we also lost another hour. Total of 4.5 hours late. We finally arrived at 4am. Whimper. As a result, though, we got free food and alcohol from the train shop, and were told we were getting a full refund for the ticket. We also all got free taxis at London to take us wherever. So we got into the hotel at 4.45am. And slept. For a while.

London!

When we finally got up at 1.30pm, we managed to make our way to the cute park near the hotel and discovered something neither of us expected. SQUIRRELS!!! We bought us some peanuts and hand fed them, which was so awesome! Pigeons were a little scary, though. There were about 30 of them SQUIRREL! following us around. After that (we could have spent all day there) we went to the ticket office next to our hotel, where we encountered the meanest old lady EVER. But she sold us some tickets - we're going to West End Theatre! Tonight! To Flashdance, whatever that is. And some other tickets. But she was mean. MEAN!

So (we almost forgot) we went out (after eating a traditional SQUIRREL! roast meal) and walked along the river. There were some markets on, and really pretty lights all along the Thames. Got a Baileys hot chocolate (best thing in the whole entire world!) and had to scull them before going on the London Eye. We loved that - it was so pretty at night, and you could see everything. Including Big Ben, which was the only thing we recognised. We could see a skating rink down below, so that's what we did next. :) Open air rink, small, and incredibly uneven ice. But fun! I made some new friends (as always) and they were a little smaller than the usual friends I make. We caught a awesome taxi SQUIRREL! home - they're really small looking, but surprisingly roomy on the inside. Photo to come later.

So today, we have washed our clothes! Highlight of the day. Very important. I was down to my last pair of socks. We just had some pizza for lunch, and we're looking forward to Madame Tussauds, where we're headed next. :D Yay! Going to get my photo taken with Johnny Depp. Bek's going to meet Prince William! Looking forward to SQUIRREL! Christmas, too.

Love,

Bek and Belle

p.s Embarrassing moment: We had taken a great photo of Bek next to an iconic red phone box (see above), when we zoomed in, finding out that the inside of all of these phone boxes are covered with pictures of porn advertisements. Lovely. SQUIRREL!