Last updated: September 21, 2023

“Reach for the sky, ’cause tomorrow may never come!” These lyrics, written by Social Distortion, are one of my life mottos, especially tonight. It’s June 9, 2018, and they’re playing at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, Canada. This song, called “Reach for the Sky” is the opener of the set, and puts everyone in a great mood, hungry to hear what’s next. Same as many other strangers in the crowd, I’m pogo dancing* and screaming my heart out to the song lyrics I know. 

Social Distortion is a Punk Rock band from Orange County, California, USA, and has been around since 1979. So it’s no surprise that fans of various ages are in the audience. I’ve been listening to them since 2008, saw them live for the first time in 2009, and proudly wearing my Social Distortion hoodie wherever I go.

Vancouver is almost 600 km (372 miles) away from where we live, and my main reason to visit is tonight’s show. It’s my first concert in a long time, as I was either broke and/or lived too far away from bigger cities before, where famous bands usually play gigs.

It looks like there are lots of Social Distortion fans in BC, as this show was sold out quickly, so a second one was added for the next day. While Jade Jackson and Aaron Lee Tasjan, the support bands, are playing their set, I make my way to the first row, before it gets too busy.

Soon the air in the room is damp from people dancing. Even though the headliner hasn’t entered the stage yet, it’s already decorated with cool stuff, like mannequins, road signs, a siren and a giant dog statue! Then, around 11 pm, Social Distortion finally enters the stage.

So far, Social Distortion’s set consists of older, like “Mommy’s little monster” (1983) and “She’s a Knockout” (1990), but also newer songs, like “Don’t take me for granted” (2004) and “Machine Gun Blues” (2010), so there’s something for everyone in the audience.

Lead singer/guitarist Mike Ness is the only original band member, and seems to enjoy getting the most attention. They haven’t published an album since 2011, so later, we are glad to hear a new song, “Over You“, which is going to be on their new album. Yay, something to look forward to!

Here’s a video of “Highway 101“, the second song of the set.

Suddenly, something unexpected happens. I feel like 16-year old me, who used to go to Punk Rock shows a lot, and behaved the same way, is standing right next to me. In my imagination, we’re reunited. Most times, she went to gigs by herself, as many of her friends didn’t share her taste, or lived too far away to join. But she was fine with that, all that mattered was seeing one of her favourite bands live.

She lived in a small town in Germany, where, in her opinion, many people were close-minded, boring, and/or conservative. She’d been listening to this music for about a year, which has encouraged her to be herself, and she felt like the scene accepts her. She didn’t care that the general public perceived her as a misfit, as she was focused on enjoying her life, and not obsessing about people’s expectations.

Every day, she put on alternative clothing, like ripped jeans, a black shirt, studded belt, Converse, and if it was cold out, a kufiya scarf, and sometimes, she dyed her hair red or black. She was sick of school and most of her classmates, and Punk concerts made her forget about these and other things she worried about. Although she was rather quiet, the aggressive, but passionate lyrics of her favourite bands (i.e. left-wing politics, free-thought, non-conformity, society issues, etc.) spoke right to her.

Even though she usually didn’t talk much to the other fans in the audience, it felt like she’d known them for years. To her, it was important to enjoy every moment to the fullest, which she did by drinking a beer and pogo dancing the night away.

A Punk Rock girl through the years, 2005 vs. 2020.

Thanks to this reunion, I learnt that live music is still a big part of my life, a happy place I haven’t thought about in a long time. 16-year old me reminded me to focus on what matters most in life: Just be yourself and don’t care what others think. Do what makes you happy, and fight for your dreams. Don’t let others make you feel bad.

No matter how old I get, music is an important part of my life, and will stay with me forever. We’re as close as ever, so I’ll keep going to live gigs in the future, and dress alternatively in my free time, to keep 16-year old (and present) me alive and happy. Although society’s expectations have changed with time, they still don’t matter much to me. I know there’s still a lot to learn in life, but I feel pretty comfortable with who I have become, which has to do with her for sure!

Back to the concert, before Social Distortion is playing “Don’t drag me down“, another fan favourite, Mike Ness hints that it could be a “tribute song” to Donald Trump, which makes me laugh! It can certainly be interpreted that way, although it was published in 1996.

Unfortunately, this great show can’t go on forever. The lead singer fools the audience by asking to choose the last song of the set, but then it turns out that their amazing cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” was on their setlist all along! He adds that in 1989, his friends asked why he decided to cover this country song, instead of a punk song, and Mike just responded: “Because it’s cool”, and the cheering crowd is going crazy, as if there’s no tomorrow!

It’s way after midnight when the song is over, and I walk outside, still “high” from the music, but also happy to breathe in the cool night air. Like 16-year old me, I didn’t make any friends, which is fine. So I just hop in a cab, that takes me to the HI Downtown Hostel, where I’m spending the night.

As you can probably tell, I had a blast at the Social Distortion concert! Most of the band members, including Mike Ness, are in their 50’s or even 60’s, but this didn’t stop them from playing an awesome show! Apart from playing great songs, I think it’s important that bands communicate with the audience, which Mike did very well! For example, towards the end, he asked if everyone had a good time, and the crowd cheeringly agreed. Then Mike added: “If you’re not having a good time, we’re not doin’ our job!”

So I can’t wait to see Social Distortion live for the third time in the near future!

The Commodore Ballroom has been a part of Vancouver’s entertainment scene since 1930, and in my opinion, it was the perfect spot for this show. I prefer smaller over large locations, as it’s more personal, and you get a chance to be close to the stage, without having to pay anything extra.

Besides, although the Commodore Ballroom is not fancy, it has everything you need to have a good time: A large dance floor, bar and merchandise stand, seated area with tables, and a coat check area, so there’s no need to worry about your valuables while having fun.

So it’s no surprise that many Punk and Rock music legends, like The Clash, Ramones, Nirvana, Pixies, Franz Ferdinand, and The Interrupters, but also local bands, chose this venue for live shows over the years.

*Pogo is a dance associated with Punk Rock shows, where people either jump up and down, or move (dance) around. Occasionally, dancers collide, and it might even seem that they’re attacking each other, which is untrue. Instead, pogo represents a feeling of belonging in a group (i.e. the Punk Rock scene), and if people fall, they’re helped back up instead of getting trampled. Apparently, it was invented by Sid Vicious, the Sex Pistols’ famous bassist, in 1976, during the early Punk days in London, England. 

Until next time, and thanks for checking out my blog today. 🙂

Last updated: June 18, 2023

After returning from Germany to Canada in August 2020, I had to quarantine for 14 days, to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Although I wasn’t technically travelling, I think this counts as a travel experience, as I was away from our regular home. Plus, we all know that this is usually not part of a traveler’s life!

Thankfully, Dexter, our pet rat, was happy to spend it with me! But first of all, who’s this special friend of mine?

Dexter is a standard pet rat with white and light brown fur, and black eyes. He was born on December 1, 2018 in Kamloops, BC, same as Moochie, his brother. Sadly, Moochie passed away in May 2020 because of a brain tumour (RIP), so since then, Dexter has been the only rat in the house. He’s fine with that, as he gets to spend lots of quality time with his humans every day.

Dexter is very social and affectionate, but he can be quite dominant, too! He likes sleeping, ripping up newspapers, and eating, of course, especially avocadoes, bananas, pasta, cheese, pork chops, steak, and the occasional treat. Like most pet rats, Dexter doesn’t like baths though.

We were quarantined in a cabin with a small yard, just us. Dexter hung out with me on the couch during the day, and inside his cage at night. After a few days, we’d gotten used to a daily routine. It looked like this:

• We ate lots of meals together. Dexter didn’t mind eating the non-fancy food, that had been sitting inside our kitchen cupboards for a long time.
• Since we hadn’t seen each other in a while, Dexter was excited to hear what I’d been up to in Germany, and my plans to visit Japan and other destinations in the future.
• Dexter learnt about Pokémon Yellow, a game I played on my Gameboy Color. He loved the background music, and was happy for me when I caught a new Pokémon or win a tough battle!
• Dexter always sleeps a lot, so I decided to adjust to his schedule a bit. It was an awesome, but action-packed trip to Germany, so sleeping a lot helped me recharge from it.
• I read several books, such as a manga named “My Roommate is a Cat” by Tsunami Minatsuki, and told Dexter what it was about. He was also glad that I talked to people on the phone, as we couldn’t have visitors.
• We listened to music together, and watched Netflix, such as Friends and Back to the Future. It was a great way for us to snuggle into a blanket and relax. Also, Dexter watched me build a drum set out of Nanoblocks!
• Lastly, I walked around the yard quite often for fresh air and Vitamin D. Unfortunately, Dexter doesn’t have a leash, so he couldn’t join me. Also, I didn’t want to overwhelm him with more changes!

In general, there are lots of benefits of spending time with a furry friend, as it’s supposed to make you feel calm and relaxed. Dexter is no exception to this, as he’s always there, and loves us unconditionally.

I believe that he understands what I’m saying, which helped me not to get lonely or bored during quarantine. One day, Dexter sensed that I wasn’t feeling well, so he laid next to me, and put his front paws on my hand, and this loving gesture made me feel much better! <3

The Nanoblock drum set, and Dexter in our quarantine home.

Here are a few things I learnt during our life in quarantine:

• It’s important to relax, and accept the situation you’re in, especially if you can’t do anything about it. So we just took things day by day, and stuck to our routine. I knew that soon, life will be back to normal!
• Live in the moment, and if you’re tired, don’t feel bad for taking a nap. That’s a big one, as it doesn’t help worrying about the past or future, and although it might sound lame, sleep is important! 
• Appreciate and use up the food that you have before buying new stuff. If it’s not your favourite food, come up with ideas on how to make it tastier. Be creative! There are so many people starving in this world, so either way, we should be grateful for what we have.
• Ensure to keep your brain occupied, e.g. by playing video games, and reading books or magazines. It also made me realize that I should keep reading a lot in the future, instead of wasting time on the internet.
• Spending time alone is supposed to be healthy, as you get to know yourself better. Before I was surrounded by friends and family a lot, which was awesome, but I also appreciated spending time just by myself, and Dexter, of course. This helped me to be prepared for life after quarantine!

Fortunately, with all the fun we had, the time flew by very quickly! Although being in quarantine was quite an interesting experience, I hope that next time, things will be back to normal, so we can just do whatever we like. Funnily enough, it felt strange at first to be back in the outside world, as we’d gotten so used to our quarantine home!

I hope you enjoyed e-meeting Dexter, and thanks for checking out my blog today 😀

Sadly, our sweet Dexter passed away in February 2021, most likely because of congestive heart failure. He was 26 months old, and we’ll keep all the amazing memories of him and Moochie in our hears forever <3 They both had the best life a rat could ask for.

Last updated: September 21, 2023

Good day, I recently started this blog, and here a few travel passions of mine I’ll share with you:

Music Tourism. Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved music, because it’s one of the best ways to escape from reality. It started with recording radio songs to cassettes, later listening to CD’s and watching music videos on MTV, and then on YouTube.

As a teenager, I started identifying myself with mostly Punk and Rock music and still do to this day. My favourite bands are Nirvana, The Offspring, Social Distortion, The Ramones, Green Day, Rise Against, Sex Pistols, Foo Fighters, Bad Religion, Dropkick Murphys, and many more!

In recent years, I saw several bands live, and plan to keep doing so in the future! Also, I’ll talk about trips related to music tourism, such as visiting a musician’s grave or his/her birth place. So stay tuned 😀

Food Tourism. I always like to check out places to eat, that offer mostly healthy food choices, and are easy on the wallet. I’m interested in a variety of cuisines, like Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, and North American.

I’ve been a vegetarian since 2011, so I’ll only talk about restaurants which have at least one option for me. Fortunately, many places nowadays have tons of options for vegetarians and/or vegans, so don’t worry, it won’t get boring!

Left: Monashee Buddha Bowl in Clearwater, Canada. Middle: Shojin ryori (Buddhist monk’s diet) in Koya, Japan. Right: Soup and Guinness bread in Ballina, Ireland.

Ecotourism and Animal-friendly Tourism. Making a difference by reducing my carbon footprint is important to me. For example, I usually travel by bus, train, bicycle, or on foot, if possible.

Also, I enjoy exploring natural habitats and learning how to protect species in need, and to help keeping an area accessible to future generations. Another critical aspect when I travel is to buy authentic souvenirs from local businesses, which I’m hopeful gives the owner(s) an opportunity for a better life.

Also, animal welfare has been a crucial part of my life for 20+ years. So obviously, when on a trip, I like to participate in animal-friendly, non-exploitative activities, such as whale watching or visiting a local animal rescue organization.

I’ve been lucky to have met some Canadian wildlife in their natural environment throughout the years as well.

From the top left: Mountain sheep and moose in Jasper National Park, AB, and beaver and bison in Elk Island National Park, AB. Canada geese on Toronto Islands, ON, July 2012.

Soft Adventure Tourism. While travelling, I like to explore the area and get back to nature at the same time, so I go hiking, stand-up paddle boarding on a lake or ocean, sea kayaking, or ziplining.

Also, I’ve enjoyed tent camping and cycling in the summer since I was a child, and ice-skating, skiing, and snow shoeing in the winter. These activities are great, because they’re not physically exhausting, don’t need a lot of preparation, and are quite low-cost.

Plus, they sometimes force you to get out of your comfort zone, which I think makes them even more exciting!

Left: On a bike tour in Dublin, Ireland. Right: Kayaking in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick.

Domestic Tourism. Last but not least, I’ll keep you posted about trips I’ve been taking within Canada, which has been my home since 2012. I think it’s not always necessary to travel abroad to have an awesome time, and it supports the local economy as well.

So far, I’ve traveled to places in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Yukon, and New Brunswick, and can’t wait to explore more of this gorgeous and versatile country!