Viva Barcelona

I was slightly saved from holiday blues this morning by receiving a 2:1 overall for second year! It's the grade I wanted, but I am slightly worried that many of the good grades came from my Texas courses...definitely need to crack the whip next year at Keele, and I am sure I shall! I'm now sat making my way through all of the photos, and thought I should put together my blog post about it.

To go through the holiday day by day, would take an absolute age, and even though I'd love reminiscing you'd probably fall asleep reading this, so instead I shall let you in on the highlights.

Our Hotel - Hotel SB Plaza Europa
Though it was a half an hour walk from where we had to get the bus from - Espanya square, a secondary one to the main one Catalunya, which is at the top of La Rambla. The entrance hall was really well designed, and the roof top pool had stunning views.

I think that visitors may miss out on Espanya, and only focus on Catalunya unless they are told to go, so I am telling you to go!! An old bull ring has been turned into a shopping centre that has restaurants on the top floor with stunning views, including the art museum. While we were there we found out the road up to the museum hosts an annual Harley Davidson exhibition - a fab surprise! Catalunya is still worth it though of course. It sits at the top of La Rambla, which is nice but nowhere near as buzzing as I heard it was, and houses an impressive shopping centre with a restaurant with stunning views at the top, and Alex's 14th and my 6th Hard Rock Cafe.

City Sightseeing Bus ToursEven though I had to spend about an hour cropping the bus rails and people's heads out of pictures, as I said before about New York, and New Orleans, these bus tours are THE BEST way to see a new place. We probably didn't need all four days, especially as we also bought four days of the Barcelona card (definitely unnecessary), but the views from the buses, and the amount you can see in a short space of time in unrivaled.

Sagrada Familia

This stunning cathedral was a highlight of my trip. You can tell that it's an outpouring of Gaudi's passion for architecture and God. Walking indoors to the cast white space, decorated with stunningly vibrant stained glass was one of the times I have felt most impressed. As a Christian, the giant building and sharp edges, mixed with colour and warmth really blends the more harsh God of the Old Testament with the calmer one of the New Testament through Jesus, our friend.

Camp Nou
One of the other 'churches' we visited was Camp Nou, the home of Barcelona FC. It really is a massively impressive stadium, and in some ways is superior to Wembley, the Molineux and Anfield, except of course that Anfield houses 5 UEFA trophies and Camp Nou only has 4...just saying...

Even if you're not a football fan, you HAVE to visit it, and they do reduced student prices!

Must Eat and Drink at
You MUST eat at El Nacional. It's the most quirky place, about 5 different restaurants all under one roof, providing some of the tastiest food. Alex and I ate in the meat restaurant and split a kilo of beef, it was wonderful, as were the Canarian potatoes we had to start.

 I also really advise that you drink in the ice bar. It's right on the beach, which only adds to the weirdness of being submerged into -15! As it was so warm outside the cold was actually more refreshing than anything, and my poor swollen blistered feet most certainly benefit!

The seven days away were so enjoyably relaxed that when it was time for our beach afternoon, I found sitting around a bit boring! Not it a bad way, but because I was so chilled already, having done everything we wanted to, and not had to leave the hotel before half 1 each day, the enforced chilling of sitting around wasn't necessary. Barcelona is an absolutely lovely place, and when they officially finish Sagrada Familia I'm most definitely going back, but until then there are far too many places on my must see list to visit first!

<3
 

Throwback Thursday

Happy first birthday to this blog!!

A year ago today I welcomed everyone to 'Laura Meets World'. I was at the end of a mad first year at Keele University, and about to embark on a semester studying abroad in Texas. Now, I am returning from a week in Barcelona (I shall blog about asap) with Alex, the boyfriend I met at Keele, having gone through second year, one of the craziest years of my life - quite literally! I'm also researching the two dissertations I shall be writing next year, my final year of undergraduate study! It's bonkers how quickly everything's going. Here's to another year of me meeting the world, and experiencing life.

All The Feels

Humans attempted to test God, and asked Him how much He loves us, so He stretched out His arms, said 'this much', and then died. In the form of Jesus, God came to Earth to tell us that loving Him, and loving our neighbour are the two most important rules. The Old Testament is brilliant for history, and is so incredibly encouraging in the way that it foretells Jesus' coming, but the vengeful God of the Old Testament is moved on from in the form of our friend, the Son of Man. However, people decide to use certain passages from the Old Testament to attack homosexuality, an in essence not love their neighbour. Even in the New Testament much of what is written against homosexuality was written by the likes of Paul, members of the first church. Now don't get me wrong, they knew Jesus personally, everything they have to say is inspiring, and ought to be read, and they should be praised for their brave preaching in the face of adversity. BUT, they're not God, or Jesus, they are Christians ultimately sharing their own human interpretations. In verses near those against homosexuality, there are also verses against divorce, but in much of the Western world at least that is legal.

Therefore, love ultimately won when Jesus died for us to save us from our sins, and as an extension of that, (marriage) equality is also love winning.

Those I spent time in church with in Texas were conservative in their beliefs, and on Facebook have openly projected distaste for the new laws in America. They all promote love for their neighbour though, and aren't attacking homosexuals viciously. I think that's because they remember what we all must do; we all sin, and only God can judge. We are equal in our sin, and even though human punishments rank sins, God does not, sexual sin is no better or worse than any other sin.

In my opinion, this whole map should be dark green showing that the entire world has legalised marriage equality. I think that if a country wants to have laws they should at most be the 10 commandments, with the two greatest ones being to love your God and love your neighbour a national anthem if you will. However, not everyone's a Christian like me so I understand that will never happen, but really those commandments are the basics, and I believe the rest should be left to everyone else's personal relationship with God. He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us, we can definitely discuss things like sexuality with Him without having to worry about being turned away.

In a world of so much terror and hatred, I think the legalities of love should be one of the last things on the to-do list, love is all you need, and it should be something we all have in whatever form we wish. At the end of the day, marriage isn't a sacrament for everyone, it is just a paper signing legal ceremony, and that should be as ok between a people of different genders as it is between people of the same genders, as should a more spiritual ceremony.

If you really are freaking out though, Buzzfeed has compiled a useful list about all the 'horror' that may now ensue: http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/what-happens-now#.ql3R9pJN8.