Latest news with #InstitutoCervantes
RTÉ News
9 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- RTÉ News
Why turning 30 isn't a deadline - it's a launchpad for new joys
A milestone birthday should be the spark for exploring new hobbies, conquering fears, and joining some of Ireland's most welcoming social circles instead of panicking over a number, writes Kate Brayden. For some, turning 30 instills a sense of panic or introspection around the current state of your life. Especially women, for obvious societal reasons. For me, the only sense of fear I felt was in relation to things I promised myself I'd try in my twenties that I had yet to start. When I was in college, I wanted to learn how to DJ. I tried attending a society that was supposed to teach lessons for beginners, but found the all-male scene too intimidating. It was one of those things I always said I'd eventually get around to, but never did. The final four weeks before my 30th birthday, I signed up for two-hour workshops with Skin&Blister and Puzzy Wrangler, who showed me the ropes of the craft without judgement. Whether I will ever become an actually skilled DJ who can play four-hour sets in the basement of Tengu is another story, but pushing myself to learn something that always scared and excited me felt like an achievement on my 30th birthday. I also started bouldering to force me to get over both a fear of public-facing exercise and heights - and built up strength over 12 months (I can now carry grocery bags without nearly passing out!). I faced a fear of public swimming pools after a childhood incident, and now go regularly to my local spot without anxiety anymore. It only took four attempts. After going to Colombia for five weeks and having the stark realisation that I did not have a notion of how to communicate with anyone there, I promised myself that I'd sign up for Spanish classes once I came home. My Leaving Certificate French was useless in South America, a region I will definitely be returning to. Last year, I started attending Instituto Cervantes in person and did a second batch of classes virtually, which has been rewarding. My 30th birthday felt like a fresh start, mostly because I had given myself confidence that I could try something new whenever I felt like it - and had the financial means, in some cases. Age doesn't have to revolve around what milestones you've achieved at that stage in life as a woman, it can just be about the everyday joys you give yourself that don't follow a timeline. Ireland is packed full of activities of all types to try, encompassing arts and crafts, sports, culture, movement and more. Whether it's about trying something you've always had an interest in, meeting new people or challenging yourself, you won't be stuck for options here. The 'be a good sport' approach Not all of us are able to cross the finish line at the Dublin Marathon, and that's fine. For those of us who still break into a cold sweat at the word 'cardio', Ireland offers a range of social sports leagues like tag rugby and mixed hockey - fun, informal, and built for friend-making. Queer friendly football clubs like Phoenix Tigers and Emerald Warriors have built incredible networks if you're searching for your tribe. Social Sports Dublin (@socialsportsdublin) connects multiple clubs together, like Ultimate Frisbee groups for women, men and non-binary people (@sundrivesocial and @rosemountgreenuf recently had a friendly). Shout out to @herbyhoofaround and @kerrytownkickabout for their ability to welcome people from every background and nationality to their pitches without taking themselves too seriously. For the thrill-seekers, there's a growing community of mountain bikers and climbers hitting places like Ticknock or Glendalough on weekends (look up @mountaineering_ireland on Instagram for routes and events, and the amazing @galzgonewild_ gang are now in Dublin, Wicklow, Cork and Galway). Or dip into cold water swimming: the @seaswimsquad crew in the North and Irish open water community offers swims that feel like pure magic. If you're after something intense but indoors, CrossFit and Hyrox gyms are booming across Dublin and Cork, especially, offering both competition and community. Bouldering has also seen a massive uptick in recent years, with The Wall in Sandyford proving popular as well as its sister site Bloc opening in Dublin 22. You can also try Awesome Walls near Finglas and Gravity Climbing Gym in Inchicore - both great, established spots. Of course, we can't omit run clubs. Though they have boomed in numbers during the Covid pandemic (and the bigger ones can be a tad clique-y at times, rumour has it), there are smaller ones that strive to put friendship and encouragement first. For example, @slowgirlruns_dublin is a relaxed group catering to a more easygoing pace, emphasising fun and fitness over speed. @the_libertiesrunningclub welcomes runners of all abilities - same for @innercityrunningclub's community-focused crew. The 'you're very cultured in your old age' approach Not everyone can aspire to be a polyglot, but learning a new language can be both useful for travelling and great for training your brain. If you want to learn cúpla focal or get your fluency back, Conradh na Gaeilge on Harcourt Street offers Irish language classes that double as cultural hubs. Whether you're a Gaeilgeoir or a complete beginner, you'll find a session to suit you - and probably some cairde, too. Ireland's literary scene is thriving, and you can dive in at book clubs like Léamh Rave or by volunteering at literature festivals. You can also find groups who love to sit and read in silence together, if you want to escape into another world surrounded by others before gathering at a pub or restaurant after to discuss each person's books. Writing groups like Frustrated Writers or literary salons like Salon Rógaire as Gaeilge are also on the rise. For something a little more offbeat, Timeleft hosts "dinners with strangers" - perfect if you're looking to have a conversation between five people (matched with personality tests) that doesn't go beyond small talk. Love strategising? Try board game nights via @meetup_dublin or @boarddublin - oddly addictive and easy to chat to people with easygoing competition. The 'move into your thirties' approach We've all experienced the targeted ads for ClassPass on our feeds, presumably. Yoga is everywhere, but some of the more specific communities are great for moving your body in a focused way while chatting to some lovely people. Some more catered classes in Dublin now have wine nights after a restorative session, or yoga while listening to live music - like Sunflower Sessions (@sunflowersessions_ on Instagram). Aerial classes have also seen a major increase in members, with many women in particular finding the strength-building and community to be empowering beyond measure. Irish Aerial Creation Centre in Limerick is Ireland's home for aerial arts - and offers hoop, silks, rope and Cyr wheel classes for adults, professionals and juniors. Tribute Fitness and Dance Studio in Dublin offers pole fitness, aerial hoop, acrobalance, flexibility, and heels classes with a vibrant atmosphere. Whether you're a beginner or advanced, Tribe provides a supportive environment to explore your passion for aerial arts. Outside of Dublin, you can try Flying High Fitness in Galway, Limerick and Ennis - or Pole Garage in Galway. The crafty 'Eat, Pray, Love' approach Embroidery classes like @be_alice_ are hosting 'sewcial' groups for meeting like-minded, crafty friends. Knitting, tufting, jewellery making, drawing classes - even wood turning - you can find it in the capital and in smaller communities around Cork, Clare, Galway and more. Pottery in Throwing Shapes, Temple Bar, and stained glass workshops in Flux Studios are both brilliant hubs for using your hands to make something new and fulfilling. Irish Stained Glass ( also has its own workshops on its website. Music is also one of the best ways to harness a new skill while meeting a community. You can take serious one-on-one classes with a tutor or attend group classes before trying open mic nights around your area, or try joining a choir if singing has always been your secret passion. For trad, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann are the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music, song and dance in the country, for example. Turning 30 isn't about landing at a final point and evaluating what you've done so far in your three decades. Ireland has plenty of welcoming communities and creative corners to discover more about yourself. Whether it's climbing a wall, learning salsa, sea swimming at sunset, or finally taking that DJ class you put off in college, the real win is just showing up. You don't need a five-year plan, just enough energy to introduce yourself in a room of strangers.
Daily News Egypt
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily News Egypt
Spain participates in EU Film Festival in Alexandria with Acclaimed screenings
As part of the cultural celebrations marking Europe Month, the Embassy of Spain in Egypt and the Instituto Cervantes of Alexandria will take part in the latest edition of the EU Film Festival in Alexandria. The festival, running from May 4 to June 5, is part of a broader initiative by the European Commission aimed at supporting and enhancing the quality of European film festivals organized by EU delegations around the world. This year's edition features 26 films from 21 EU countries, to be screened across eight cultural centers in Alexandria. Spain will present two notable works: 'The Blue Star' by Javier Macipe, and 'Everybody Knows' by Asghar Farhadi. 'The Blue Star' will be shown on May 15 at 7 p.m. at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The film follows Mauricio Aznar, a celebrated Spanish rock musician from the 1990s, who travels through Latin America in search of personal and artistic renewal, escaping the shadow of addiction. Along the way, he encounters Don Carlos, an elderly yet nearly forgotten folk musician. Their unexpected friendship gives rise to a unique and quixotic musical duo. 'Everybody Knows', scheduled for May 18 at 7 p.m. at the Instituto Cervantes in Alexandria, tells the story of Laura, who returns from Buenos Aires to her hometown in Spain for her sister's wedding. What begins as a joyful family reunion quickly unravels into a gripping drama, as hidden tensions and long-buried secrets come to light. Now in its fourth year, the EU Film Festival in Alexandria continues the success of its 2022, 2023, and 2024 editions. Admission to all screenings is free of charge, with English and Arabic subtitles provided to ensure accessibility for local audiences. Each film will be followed by discussions with filmmakers and critics, fostering deeper engagement with the stories and themes presented on screen. This cultural initiative not only showcases the richness and diversity of European cinema but also highlights Spain's ongoing commitment to artistic dialogue and exchange with Egyptian audiences.
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- The Guardian
‘Their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta': how two centuries of British writers helped forge our view of Spain
Almost 200 years ago, the pioneering British travel writer Richard Ford offered an observation that has been happily ignored by the legions of authors who have traipsed in his dusty footsteps across Spain, toting notebooks, the odd violin or Bible, and, of course, their own particular prejudices. 'Nothing causes more pain to Spaniards', Ford noted in his 1845 Handbook for Travellers in Spain, 'than to see volume after volume written by foreigners about their country.' Given some of his waspish pronouncements, the pain in Spain was thoroughly justified. Catalonia, to Ford's mind, was 'no place for the man of pleasure, taste or literature … here cotton is spun, vice and discontent bred, revolution concocted'. He found Valencians 'vindictive, sullen, fickle and treacherous', while reporting that the 'better classes' in Murcia 'vegetate in a monotonous unsocial existence: their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta'. Ford, whose often acid nib belied a deep love of all things Iberian, is one of 20 British authors profiled in a new Spanish book, Los curiosos impertinentes ('the annoyingly curious'), that explores the UK's enduring fascination with Spain and reflects on how two centuries of travel writing have shaped the country's image abroad. The book is prefaced by Ford's pain quotation and by another, from the late Spanish writer Ramón J Sender: 'There's nothing like a foreigner when it comes to seeing what we're like.' The writers selected by the book's author, the British journalist and writer William Chislett, include Ford and his contemporary, the Bible salesman George Borrow, as well as some of their 20th-century successors, among them Laurie Lee, Gerald Brenan, Norman Lewis, VS Pritchett and Robert Graves. Authors from more recent decades are represented by Miranda France and Giles Tremlett, and by the late Michael Jacobs, to whom the book is dedicated. 'I deliberately began in the 19th century with Ford and Borrow and didn't go further back because I felt I had to start somewhere,' says Chislett, who has lived in Spain for almost 40 years. 'One could regard Ford's book as the first travel book … Then we skip forward to the 20th and 21st century for 18 other people, most of whom are absolutely unknown here, let alone in the UK.' The book, which was originally conceived of as an exhibition, is published by the Instituto Cervantes, the governmental organisation tasked with promoting the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. Chislett says there is no escaping the fact that all the books he cites 'have forged an image' of the country that has shifted over the centuries. He points out that the old British idea of Spain as a dark, devout place – built on anti-Spanish propaganda and best summed up by the austere majesty of El Escorial, Philip II's monastery-cum-palace near Madrid – began to give way to something altogether more wild and romantic in the 19th century. In the aftermath of the peninsula war, Britons began to be seduced by Spain's history, architecture and culture, and El Escorial had given way to the distant, Islamic splendours of the Alhambra in Granada. 'It was unknown territory and had all these exotic elements,' adds Chislett. 'Word got around that there were all these abandoned castles and flamenco … You've got these two contrasts: you've got the 'black legend' version of Spain and then you've got the romantic version of Spain.' Borrow and Ford were followed by Lee, who immortalised Spain on the cusp of civil war in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and by Lewis, whose Voices of the Old Sea captures a dying way of life in Farol, a profoundly superstitious village on the Costa Brava, as fishing gives way to mass tourism. The authors' reflections also reveal that concerns over what is known today as overtourism are hardly new. Ford, who perhaps did more than most to put Spain on the tourist map, complained that the 'implacable march of the European intellectual is crushing many native wildflowers', while Pritchett later lamented that Spain had been 'invaded by tourists'. Equally familiar, as Chislett and others mention, is Spain's love-hate relationship with how it is viewed through foreign eyes. 'Maybe Spaniards are prickly because so much has been written about them,' he says. 'I haven't come to any conclusion, but maybe you could say Spaniards – unjustifiably now, but maybe justifiably during the Franco regime – have an inferiority complex, which I like to think they've got rid of totally, given what's happened over the last 50 years. 'In many ways, Spain is way ahead of other European countries.' While Chislett describes the book as a 'labour of love' and an attempt to repay Spain for its kindness and hospitality over the past four decades, he hopes it will also introduce Spanish readers to some of the great British travel writers. 'There are books earlier than Ford and Borrow, going back to the 18th century,' he adds. 'It's about highlighting this tradition, which still goes on.' In his foreword to the book, the Spanish novelist and travel writer Julio Llamazares advises his compatriots to cast aside their 'pride and patriotism' so that they might glimpse themselves anew in its pages. 'It's worth being prepared to accept the foreign gaze or, perhaps more accurately, the foreign gazes, given how many authors have written about us after touring our country and getting to know it,' he writes. 'Like English-speaking Quixotes, they paint our portraits with their words, even as they demonstrate their passion for a country and a culture that, despite being so different to their own, has marked them forever and for life.'
