As spring break rolled out around this year, I was more excited than usual for the upcoming week off of school. I'm always excited to take a break from school and do the typical "spring break beach thing," however, this year was different. This year, I would be spending my spring break week in New York City, one of my favorite places in the world. Seeing as this was my third trip to the big city, I felt confident that I knew most of the good things to do, places to eat and what wasn't worth my time. What I discovered was so many more unique, non-touristy places and activities there that ended up making this my favorite trip to New York thus far.
One of the first nights, we went to a hockey game in Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Islanders. I've never been to a large scale hockey game so this was a cool experience, and the stadium was full of energy and excitement.
We also decided, last minute, to buy tickets for a comedy show that featured a bunch of up-and-coming comedians. If you like to drink while listening to inappropriate jokes, it is actually quite hilarious and very cool to see how these comedians get their start.
One of my personal favorite things we did, while it could be considered "touristy," was attend a Jimmy Fallon monologue rehearsal. I have a huge infatuation with him so this was obviously a big deal to me, but in all reality it was pretty cool. This isn't the taping of his show but rather just Jimmy Fallon coming in front of about a third of his audience and going through his jokes for the actual show. It's free, so if you're able to snag tickets, definitely go.
The last night we were there, we attended a show called "Drunk Shakespeare," something I feel I should explain. Basically, a group of actors drink and reenact a Shakespearean play with the addition of cultural references, dirty jokes, celebrity impersonations and even some very bad dancing. The play that we attended was a reenactment of "Macbeth" and, while I don't remember much about this play from reading it in high school, I never felt like I was confused or lost from the storyline. This was, by far, one of the most interesting and entertaining things I'd ever seen, and I highly recommend it.
Last, and probably our favorite part collectively, we hit up a happy hour every night. Pretty much starting at 4 p.m., which is right when you need a break from walking everywhere, we would pop into a random bar for a happy hour and just sit and chill, order food and rest for a bit. By doing this, we discovered a bunch of cool bars and restaurants, new drinks and got to take in different atmospheres, depending on where we were in the city.
If you're lucky enough to visit this fun city, take advantage of all the cool and exciting things that most tourists don't do. It really makes the trip a whole lot more fun and interesting.
