Mes: enero 2018

It’s the gayest time, the most merry and lovely and enjoyable time. Not only is it carnival, that global celebration once-upon-a-time marking the last hurrah before the 40 days of Lent’s abstinence, but it’s carnival done Spanish style, done Catalan style, done in a way that’s befitting of Barcelona. Sitges carnival is the gayest time because everybody is just so happy, and dressed up so wonderfully, and with all the sequins and glitter, and hunky guys on floats with their tops off despite the cold, and women wearing next to nothing kissing other women wearing next to nothing…

Sitges carnival is also the gayest because Sitges is one of Europe’s gay capitals, a seaside resort that has long enjoyed the patronage of LGBTQI sunseekers and party animals.

Now carnival in Sitges isn’t a specifically gay event, but there’s no denying the influence that the local community have on proceedings, making it an absolute delight of a party to participate in, or just watch from the sidelines. If you’ve never celebrated carnival before, you’re in for a surprise, and if you have you’ll know to dress up, paint your face, grab some beads and let loose for one night.

Why carnival?

So Lent is supposed to be a period of intense abstinence leading up to Easter, a period where catholics would give up vices, like drinking and cigarettes, as well as not so vices, like eating red meat. They say that carnival came about because everybody had a lot of meat that they had to get through before the period of no meat, but that’s just the vanilla version. More likely is that everybody wanted to get fucked up and bang each other before the 40 days without. Also, the word carnival derives from the latin carne vale, which means farewell meat. Now you could think that they were talking about the meat from the kitchen, but we’re pretty sure that they were saying goodbye to trouser meat.

So now carnival is celebrated in the old and new catholic worlds, including famous events in Venice, Italy, Cologne, Germany, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, New Orleans, USA, and our own special Sitges, Spain (Catalunya!). All of these celebrations are about covering your identity a little so you can truly get up to mischief you won’t be held responsible for at a later date. Wear a mask, cover yourself in feathers, grab some beads, and just go wild! You’re probably not going to abstain afterwards, but any excuse for a good party…

What’s good in Sitges?

Well, it’s a gay hub, which means that it attracts plenty of visitors, so shopping, restaurants, clubs, etc are all of a high standard with plenty of variety. There are a bunch of beautiful beaches, a great old church that overlooks the sea, an old town that features windy, narrow streets with all those bars and restaurants and clubs littered along it, and it’s just down the road from Barcelona, so you can get there and home without too much hassle (but make sure you get to the train before it closes, and forget about it all together on Carnival night — too busy, not enough options, and you don’t want to be stuck there in the cold). For more information on Sitges, check out our guide.

The Sitges carnival is a parade and a street party. There will be floats with gaudily dressed performers, scantily dressed performers, not dressed at all performers, and we’ll be drinking and dancing away while they go past, sometimes participating ourselves. Once that’s done we’ll continue grooving in the streets, hit up some bars and clubs, and then stumble back to the bus home.

What’s the deal with Stoke Travel’s Sitges carnival trip?

We’re going to roll in to Sitges on Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, after our pre-party in Barcelona, with an hour of open bar from 4:30pm. Our private coaches will take us to Sitges and bring us back home when it’s done, and there’ll be a litre of sangria waiting for you when you arrive. We’ll have guides to help guide you through the madness, but if you get lost don’t worry, just go with the party and make your way back to the buses when it’s time to go. Every year we take hundreds of partiers from Barcelona to Sitges, and this year will be no different. Let’s say goodbye to meat and get buck wild for Carnival 2018, Sitges style!

Sitges Carnival is on the 13th of February. Book your trip now, it’s only €25 for what might just be the best night of your life… 

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A statement from Stoke Travel regarding usage of the term “lit” and its applicability to the Las Fallas festival.

Following recent reports of one of our 40-year-old marketing executives embarrassingly describing 2018 as being “lit as fucccck”, we’d like to make some things clear.

Firstly, we’d like to distance ourselves from Barry’s remarks, and reiterate that while 2018 will indeed be the best year in living memory, both across Stoke Travel’s trips and in general, we don’t want to describe an entire year as being “lit”, or any derivatives of that term, including “lit af”, “lowkey lit fam”, etc.

Stoke Travel is very happy for our staff and guests to use these terms when applicable, so long as they’re not massive middle aged dorks like Mr Cassidy (who has been reprimanded and is only allowed to wear Hawaiian shirts to the office one Friday a month).

There is, however, one exception, and that is Las Fallas, the annual festival of fire that will take place in Spain’s Valencia from the 15th to the 20th of March. The use of the term lit and all of its derivatives, some we haven’t even heard of yet, will be acceptable when used describing this festival, because not only is it massively lit in a figurative sense, people will also literally be lighting things on fire.

The festival marks the end of winter and the coming of the warmer months, and to celebrate communities across greater Valencia build giant, beautiful statues and then proceed to burn them down, one by one, on the last night of the event. This is called La Crema and it is awesome.

Upon witnessing this sight, spectators have been known to utter all kinds of ridiculous shit, of which that’s lit is by no means the worst. In fact, using lit in this context might be the only time ever that it’s justified, unless, of course, your favourite disk jockey drops a particularly fire set.

In addition to La Crema, Las Fallas sees the whole city of Valencia take to the streets for parades, day drinking, and all night partying, making it one of the most popular festivals in all of Spain, and one of the craziest in Europe. Given the nature of the fiesta, and the bonfires that make up the main event, Stoke Travel has sanctioned the use of the word lit by everybody across every aspect of the celebration, including, “this paella is lit”, when describing Valencia’s most famous dish, and “this club is lit up”, and “I’m lit as fuck right now, some motherfucker please* pass me more sangria”.

Alternatively, Stoke Travel will also accept the term “popping” when describing the fireworks that are incessantly set off, both day and night, as well as the party in general. We encourage travellers to be playful with their terminology and consider alternating between terms, like, “the fireworks were lit, sure, but the afterparty was popping until the sun came up!”.

For those of you attending Las Fallas for the first time and dubious about whether you’ll be using such heinous terms or not, just you wait. There’s a certain infectious atmosphere that surrounds this festival and that you will find impossible to escape. After just an hour or so in Las Fallas you’ll likely turn into a lit-saying maniac after seeing the way the Valencianos, as well as visitors from around Spain and the world, take to this truly unique, very exciting festival.

It’s true, fam, Stoke Travel will be popping off in Valencia for winter’s most lit-af-are-you-kidding festival. You can meet us there, or ride with us from Barcelona. Get your crew together and let’s fucking do this!

* Manners are important, especially when requesting dank bevvies from your friends

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In a move that has shocked some of his younger colleagues, 40-year-old Stoke Travel marketing executive, Barry Cassidy, has announced that 2018 is going to be “lit as fuckkkk”.

A source close to the incident reported that the highly embarrassing faux pas came towards the end of a particularly productive strategy meeting.

“We were just going over the new trips and destinations, plus outlining the improvements to the existing ones when Barry said the… thing!”, the obviously traumatised marketing manager told the Stoke Times.

“I mean, we could have seen it coming, I guess, he’s gradually been getting worse. First it was the skateboard, but he just claimed that he ‘used to get on the deck all the time’, which we all had a good laugh at. Then the leather jacket, that seemed off, but it was starting to get cold, and who knows, maybe that’s really what Barry likes to wear. The earring though. That should have been a dead giveaway, and I wasn’t the only person to notice it, the whole office was having a good laugh at that little cross dangling out of his ear. Who does he think he is? George Michaels? Is that his name? Anyway, rest in peace.”

Apart from Cassidy’s cringeworthy outburst, the strategy session in question was particularly successful, with confirmations that Stoke Travel this year would be travelling to Dublin for Saint Patrick’s Day, as well as the launch of their unique “festival within a festival” Stoked in the Park event that is designed to compliment Pamplona’s San Fermin celebrations, as well as attract travellers who may not be interested in the infamous bull run. Barry’s got particularly excited when there was talk of pool parties at Stoked in the Park, before being told by general manager JT that he would most definitely not be allowed anywhere near the event.

“He just makes everyone feel, I don’t know, a little bit… weird”, JT said afterwards, “he means well, but he wears these speedos and has that big gold chain. Just not a good look.”

At the time of print Barry was still unavailable for comment, apparently having dragged a large number of interns down to his “favourite watering hole” for some “after work bevvies”. The last we heard he was berating a particularly shy Belgian accounts intern for not “getting fucked upppppp” on tequila shots, apparently the recently divorced, weekend suit wearer’s new tipple of choice.

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To be sure, to be sure, you’re going to be kissing us as we are Irish this Saint Paddy’s Day in Dublin. The Emerald Isle’s big day is a celebration of chasing snakes, drinking, dancing and wearing green, and no matter where you are in the world it is generally a big day of partying, but to be sure for sure the biggest Saint Patrick’s Day party is in Dublin, Ireland, where you will see all of the following Irish stereotypes in their natural element.

Leprechauns

Yes, you can celebrate Saint Pat’s Day in Sydney, London, Barcelona or Boston, but in Ireland you’re guaranteed of seeing Leprechauns, or at the very least little red-haired folk who want to fight you. And if you ask them nicely they might let you see their pot of gold, which hopefully is an actual pot of real gold and not some euphemism to get your eyes on their fiery little crotches.

Red Hair

There is more red hair here than anywhere else in the world bar Scotland (and given that we just lit up Edinburgh for Hogmanay, does that make Stoke Travel’s winter trips some kind of ginger tour?), and while in other parts of the world it might be considered a disability, here in Ireland it’s… no, red hair is still pretty bad in Ireland too.

Fighting

Of course we’re kidding, some of our best friends have red hair, but if you’re still mad we’ll consent to a good old fashioned Irish scrap with you, maybe out the front of Temple Bar, which is a Dublin drinking institution that will surely see our custom this St Pat’s. We’re not advocating real fighting, just a little drunken wrestle that will end with everybody arm in arm, singing some rousing Irish drinking songs.

Sad sensitive poets

Every Irishman we’ve ever met has been a wet-eyed sensitive soul ( as opposed to the Irishwomen who are generally gregarious and feisty funsters), a born poet in touch with their inner potato famine. Imagine ending your St Paddy’s Day sitting on a street corner somewhere writing poetry while slugging from a bottle of Irish whisky, shared by a man in a terribly fitting suit. Sounds… great…

Terrible weather

Speaking of terrible, how about the incessant drizzle and cloud cover that seems to define Dublin’s weather. And while most people see terrible weather as a terrible time, not us. We see Dublin’s atmospheric misery as the perfect opportunity to drown our sorrows and turn them into good times!

Guinness

You’ve got to go to the source to really have a real Guinness for real. The other stuff is just a blackened swill, but in Dublin it’ll get you dancing, guaranteed to make you funnier, and you won’t have to eat anything, as they say that a pint of Guinness is a meal in itself. That of course  isn’t true at all, but a good enough excuse for us to save money and internal drinking space  by forgoing food when we’re on the black beauties.  

The craic

We’re still not sure what the craic is, whether it’s a sauce, or a small mammal, but from all accounts and judging by all of our experiences it is a damn good time and best found in Dublin. So when we’re here celebrating Paddy’s we’ll all get elbow deep in some craic.

They’re Catholic

Their religion requires you to drink wine in church. Anybody who’s a member of that religion must be more than fairly adept at getting lit and having a good time, if they can ignore all the teachings that forbid good times and just focus on that one moment of drinking wine.

But on top of all that, St Patrick’s Day in Dublin is one of the world’s greatest street parties in one of the world’s most partyingest cities. Come for the Guinness, stay for the shamrocks. Stoke Travel is running a tour to Dublin for St Patrick’s Day, so if you want to do it Paddy style come and join us in our finest green garb.

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We’re looking for summer festival crew. Are you ready to party your face off while meeting people from all over the world? Are you a travelling legend with a knack for helping people? We’re holding our first group interviews in London this Wednesday, 24th of January. Read on for more details.

Can you drink an entire beer out of your shoe? Can you do it before breakfast? Every day for a month? Do you have what it takes to be a Stokie? If you can, and you’re in London, then do we have an opportunity for you.

We’re looking for Stoke Travel festival crew for the 2018 season. Apart from drinking beer out of a shoe (substitutes for sangria, Jagermeister and milk are acceptable), you’ll have to be a travelling legend, a real people person who gets a kick out of helping others, organised (or at least good at following instructions), tough, hard working and ready and willing to have the best summer of your life.

Our festival crew are what make the Stoke Travel experience so memorable. We fully expect you to be wild on the surface, a fun loving hedonist from whom the good times are infectious, but also responsible. You have to be caring. It’s the responsibility of all Stokies to ensure that all the travellers partying with us are not only having the best time possible, but that they’re safe in doing so. At Stoke Travel we know that we are nothing without our guests and all Stokies have to do everything they can to ensure that everybody leaves with the biggest smile possible.

The hours are often long, but the rewards are immense. We’re not talking money, but best friends for life and the greatest times you’ve ever fallen into. You’re going to be the life of the party, the person everybody wants to hang out with, and when our big events can top 2000 people that will mean you’re very popular. Being a Stokie isn’t for everybody, but if you’re cut from the right cloth it’s the most rewarding way to pass a European summer.

Being a Stokie means that you get to enjoy Europe’s best festivals. You’ll find yourself in the middle of wine fights, bull runs, German beer tents and tomato battles. You’ll be leading an army of young international travellers into every party you go to. You’re going to get to know these festivals inside and out, something that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Stoke Travel is a truly international country, attracting guests from more than 50 countries. A good working knowledge of English is a must, and any other languages is a bonus. We encourage couples and singles to apply, no matter your situation you’re going to have a really good time.

Are you a travelling legend? Do you love partying? Does meeting new people from all around the world excite you? Can you clear your summer schedule for Europe’s greatest summer festivals? Why not check out our jobs page, or if you can be in London on the 24th of January send an email to tessa@stoketravel.com and tell her what you love, what you’re great at, any skills you might have and why you just have to be a Stokie.

And maybe, just maybe, we’ll be drinking out of each other’s shoes this summer.

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Después de haber agotado la tirada de Calendarios Hangten 2018 y ante la insistencia de los rezagados, hemos impreso otros 50 que ahora sí, son los últimos que tendremos a la venta, si aún no tienes el tuyo, es el momento de hacer tu pedido pinchando AQUI TIENDA ONLINE por 9,95 euros te lo enviamos a […]
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The beers have been flowing, the parties long, and the memories are fuzzy, but now the well has run dry. Your bank balance is emptier than Donald Trump’s friend list however that doesn’t mean the adventure has to finish, it may have just begun. The night is always darkest just before dawn and while you’re reduced to frying pickles over a camp stove at the moment, there are opportunities for travellers to earn some money in Europe that could pull you from the abyss and sustain your journey a while longer.

Blog/vlog
Of course this is every traveller’s dream job but it isn’t the easiest dream to achieve as it is a highly saturated market in which it is very difficult to build a large enough audience to gain sponsorship. You need a bare minimum of a thousand subscribers/daily active users to begin approaching companies, with most requiring at least ten thousand. So while this might be a good passion project that could potentially yield profits at some point, it isn’t going to happen overnight and probably won’t be able to save you when your cash reserves have run out.

Hostels
In cities, particularly those with a high English speaking tourism rate, hostels are often on the hunt for receptionists who are fluent in English, bonus if you are multilingual. Generally, they either offer food and accommodation in return for work, or paid work with no accommodation. The under the table pay might not be great, but it should be enough for you to put yourself up in a different hostel and feed yourself, while still managing to fit in a few nights on the sesh and save up a bit. Night shifts are great if you’re trying to save money and catch up on Game of Thrones at the same time, but sorry ladies, generally European hostels don’t let women work solo night shifts for safety reasons.

Pub Crawls
Definitely one of the more fun ways to get some cash together but at the cost of your liver. Pub crawls generally pay on a commission basis of around €2 per person you get to come on the crawl and say your name, and if you bring enough people you’ll be paid to guide them around the pubs that night for around €25. This does mean spending a lot of your day standing around on the streets harassing strangers to take your flyer, but the nights make it very much worthwhile. Ordinarily, as long as you’re still capable of doing your job, you can drink as much as you want for free and spend your time hitting on hanging out with tourists from all over the world. Being paid to party has its downsides; daily hangovers, days where you work your arse off for fuck all money, and the realisation that you are slowly turning into a full blown sesh gremlin. All these niggling little drawbacks are small sacrifices to make though when you stop to think about the desk job you would otherwise be working back home and start drinking your seventh free beer of the night.

Go Legit
Depending on where in the world you are from it may be possible for you to get a working holiday visa for certain parts of Europe. For example, Australians can get a one year working visa for the Netherlands for €51, giving you access to a myriad of job opportunities as well as all the other “benefits” of living in a beautiful and liberal country. Even if you’re not going to use it for work, the visa is good for extending your allowed time in the Schengen zone. Other countries have other deals but the U.K., Ireland, Netherlands, and Spain are always good options to look into.

You’ll need to be willing to drop your standard of what an acceptable wage is but if you’re in the mindset that anything is better than going back to the real world, there’s always options for a hungry traveller with a need to earn. Expat or company websites are good place to start in the hunt for your latest occupation but unless you have a face that Stephen Hawking’s mother couldn’t love, go for the in person meeting where possible. If all else fails, there’s always a chance that you could come over to the dark side, if Stoke has a position available! Flick us a line and see what’s up, and remember, we work because we love this shit!

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Deciding what to carry with you on your adventures can be as difficult as self circumcision, and there’s invariably things you wish you’d thought to bring with you (a corkscrew). On the flip side however, at the bottom of everyone’s bag is a collection of items that haven’t been used once, but your inner hoarder refuses to get rid of as you’re convinced at some point they’ll be absolutely essential and you’ll be kicking yourself if you’ve thrown them out.

1. A first-aid kit with all the plasters (bandaids) gone
   Your mum, bless her, gave it to you on your way out the door. “Here Steph, take this just in case you have any accidents, you’ll thank me when the time comes.” Several blisters, paper cuts and drunken scrapes later, you find yourself using the last of the eight plasters provided in the kit and that may very well be the last time you touch the kit. It will remain firmly buried at the bottom of your bag, untouched for the remainder of your trip but you can’t get rid of it, just in case the occasion arises when you need a surgical mask, three meters of bandage, or an iodine swab.
2. A single, very nice thermal sock
   Obviously this started out as a pair but at some point along the way, in a party hostel or a dubious laundromat, one of these socks has gone walkabout. Now your stuck with a surprisingly complex conundrum: to throw or not to throw. On one hand, a single sock isn’t much good and it’s so vastly thicker and warmer than your other socks that wearing it with another sock would leave you feeling a bit lopsided. On the other hand, isn’t it better to have one warm foot than no warm feet? And if you threw it away and then happened to find another lonely high quality foot garment, you’d feel like a right muppet so….. Back in the bag it goes!
3. Shower loofa/net-ball/scrubby thing
   Whatever you call those things, they’re more trouble than they’re worth. Providing you remember to take it from your hostel room to the shower, you then have to deal with a soaking wet ball, and after that you have to deal with the loofa thingy! But seriously once that thing’s wet it’s no good for travelling. Either you chuck it in your bag and get all your stuff wet or you put it in a plastic bag and let it ferment in its own juices until the next time you use it. However, if you get rid of it then you start to feel like a dirty hippy traveller and it’s handy to have something capable of scraping off weeks of grime.
4. Your “fancy” outfit
   Every girl has a pretty long dress and every bloke has that one nice Calvin Klein shirt your gran got your for Christmas. You packed it under assurances that there would be a formal occasion where your Sunday best would be necessary, but such an event is yet to occur. Your normal clothes have allowed you into every club and done you proud, yet you are loath to dispose of the formal wear, just in case you have to attend a function at an embassy or get asked on a date by a millionaire.
5. Condoms
   Seriously, you should start using them. Stay safe kids.

If you have a roller case then the weight of these frivolous necessities isn’t really an issue until your flying home and have to get it under 23 kgs, however space is a factor for backpackers and wheely case users alike. After buying a few souvenirs and expanding your party shirt collection, you may have to start making some tough decisions. When push comes to shove, you’re gonna have to ditch some of this shit. My recommendation? Keep the sock and the condoms. I still have hope that one day I will encounter another sock on my journeys to complete the pair, and my soul. If you don’t share my optimism and are feeling like part of you is missing, it’s probably a Stoke Travel Passport, the cheapest way to have the best time at Europe’s top festivals!

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