Travel Theme: Red

So this is a week of firsts for me; I took on the weekly photo challenge, I visited Cartagena and now I´m going to give Ailsa´s travel theme a go. This week, if you hadn´t guessed from the title, the theme is red! A perfect travel theme for Spain! So come with me as I show off Spain at its best, lets paint the country red!

Red theme one: Love.

One thing has to be said about Spanish people; they really do love their country, and who can blame them really? What´s not to love?

The only thing that they love as much as their country, if not more, is football. So you can only imagine what happens when you combine the two in lets say an event like, o I don´t know, something small like…the world cup for instance. Now that´s when you see their love for both at its finest, there is so much love it´s contagious! The following images were taken in “Las Tendillas” in Córdoba just after Spain’s world cup win! The atmosphere was just electric. I feel that these images capture their pride, their joy and their love for their country perfectly.

There was honestly no better place to be than Spain when they won the world cup, the Spanish really do know how to celebrate a victory!
Another image taken that glorious night!

Red Theme two: Passion.

Another thing the Spanish are famous for is their passion. Whether it´s the latin blood pumping through their veins that causes it or not I don´t know but to me, as long as it´s not over powering, passion is a great quality to have.

One of the best demonstrations of their passion is through the world of Flamenco. Flamenco is an emotionally intense style of Spanish guitar music which is always accompanied by either dancers or singers. They say that Flamenco means “to have the quality of fire”, in my eyes, there is not a better explanation of passion than this!

The following photos, taken at a show near Quesada, capture the emotional intensity and the passion of this dance.

Flamenco is a true art form filled with energy and passion; a good performance is priceless!
An emotionally intense preformance in Quesada

The next photo was taken in Córdoba in July 2011 at the launch of the guitar festival.

The launch of the guitar festival in Córdoba 2011.

Red theme: Powerful.

Imagery, religion and love for thyself and thy neighbour are all important parts of the Spanish culture, here is a festival that incorporates all these elements into one celebration:

Las Cruces, or Crosses, is a popular competition of crosses which is held every year in Córdoba. In this competition each barrio dedicates time and money in order to create these beautifully artistic floral crosses. Each cross is a representation of the pride and spirit in the barrio and are typically surrounded by potted plants and flowers in colours that complement the unique attributes of each zone. The crosses bring the community out in force in order to honour the work that has gone into making these elaborate and colourful crosses while also delighting in the possibility that their cross could earn them the much sought after title of Best Cross! To find out more about this years competition click here and here!

One of the elaborate crosses in this competition!
One of the many beautiful crosses on display in Córdoba this year!

Red Theme: Joy:

The last few images I have decided to share with you show the joyful, fun side of the Spanish culture, a side that is often forgotten about or ignored. Spanish people are an amazing group of people filled with love, passion, sensitivity, joy, vigor and romance. Some of the greatest most interesting people I have met are Spanish, so this last part is to share the joy.

One of the beautiful sweet stands at one of the many medieval markets held around the country!
An unusual party I attended in Alicante where the remains of one of the hogueras was hanging from the ceiling and live bands preformed around it!
The last image is to remind you to smile!

To see other bloggers interpretations of the theme check out Ailsa´s blog here.

Have you ever been to Spain? What did you think?

As always, thank you for reading,

Until the next time,

Giana

xoxo

18 thoughts on “Travel Theme: Red”

    1. Thank you for your lovely comment, I´m glad you liked it! The WordPress official challenges can be found at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/. I have found out about other challenges and themes through reading and following other peoples blogs. That´s the great thing about wordpress, it really has a community spirit! Here are two blogs that I´ve come across that have themes and challenges: http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/09/07/red/
      http://eastofmalaga.net/conejo-blanco/
      There are a lot more out there but these are the ones I have come across lately! Hope this has been helpful! G 🙂

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  4. Wow, what a fantastic first entry to Ailsa´s Travel theme for this week!

    Fantastic interpretation of the theme, Giana, all about this wonderful country in which we live. Well done!

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  8. Beautiful Spain. Red comes alive from an image of love, faith, passion to the excitement of the sport. I hope to visit Spain next year with my family if our budget allows. My grandfather had Spanish ancestry in his blood but we never had the chance to trace our family tree. Now I know why I too am passionate. Have a beautiful day!

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    1. Passion is a great quality to have and the Spanish are lucky enough to have it in bucketloads! I hope you do get to visit Spain next year. It has so much to offer: beautiful scenery, lots of history, culture and fantastic people! Thanks for the lovely comment and I hope you have a great day also, G 🙂

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