Amped for Pamps: Running with the Bulls in Spain

PROMOTION | For such an evidently imbecilic concept, Running With Bulls in Pamplona, Spain is rather rewarding. It’s a rush, it’s a buzz, it’s confoundingly safe. More than that it’s a ritualistic coming of age for all of us bogans taking a northern hemisphere sabbatical, akin to the foreskin chop many indigenous adolescents endure when their parents deem their wheels to be sufficiently ‘dropped’ (maybe with a little less gravity than the permanent de-sheathing of one’s ‘sword’ with a blunt shifting spanner, but a ritual nonetheless).

For us Aussies living overseas, ‘Pamps’, as only we know it (like ‘San Seb’), becomes a hot topic of conversation for a short amount of time. For some it’s relevant until Lagos, others hold onto the festival until Tomatina, or Oktoberfest, or until the million alcoholic heavy beverages you’ll consume at either, make it a fuzzy memory. In any case, whether or not one ‘did’ Pamps, whether they almost died on dead man’s corner, were made into a sangria-soaked shish-kebab in the arena, or made the ill advised leap from ‘the statue’, which is no longer a statue, but one hell of a leap nonetheless, no matter what the specifics are, you had better have some sort of death defying Pamplona tale in your banter arsenal, otherwise you won’t be nothing but, well, tits on a bull.

Tall tales aside, it’s one whale of a festival, regardless of whether you’ve endangered your life or not. Just the act of dressing in the obligatory red and white and filling your pie hole with cut rate vino tinto get’s you excited about being in Pamplona during San Fermines. We spend most of our time suckling at the sangria laden teat of Don Simon, chatting with strangers and trying to smooch them, and nicking snails from friendly local families’ bbq’d lunches.

Whether escaping the bovine hordes, or simply dooming the dancefloors you should really do the Running of the Bulls with Stoke Travel. For £40 a day, including camping accommodation, hot breakfasts daily, a bbq every other night, the biggest party outside of the Pamps festival and, for our lovely Australian Times readers, free unlimited beer, wine and sangria. Just quote ‘Aussie Times’ when booking at Stoketravel.com