The plan today was to move into our private room, which was to be our home for the last four nights of the trip. The problem was, we had to check out at 11am but wouldn't be able to check back in until at least 2.30pm. To fill this time, we decided to have a laundromat party, i.e. do some washing as we were running low on clean clothes. This was a fun experience, as everyone who worked there/was in there spoke Spanish. Even all the TVs were in Spanish. Hispanic laundromat party!
Whilst we were waiting for our washing, it started raining, so when everything was done, we headed back to the hostel and chilled out in the kitchen. We also took advantage of this time to concoct a chilli with the mince we had bought the previous day, which was going to feed us for most of the remainder of our time!
Nothing much significant happened for the rest of the day, apart from that we moved into our private room, a luxury after weeks and weeks of staying in large dorms. We took advantage of the space to lay out all our clothes and make it feel homely.
Our evening was to prove quite the contrast to our uneventful day. At 9ish, Elgin, our Austrian friend, arrived at our room as we had planned to go out for a drink. She had bought two bottles of wine to get the party started, one white and one sparkling rose. We were not supposed to be drinking in the hostel but we decided to go wild and break the rules. There was one problem though: the white wine Elgin had bought had a corkscrew and we didn't have one. Predictably, neither did the hostel. Kitty thus took it upon herself to get the cork out using a pair of blunt nail scissors. This was quite the operation, but a successful one!
As we were sat enjoying our wine and talking, there came a knock on the door. We all froze, immediately thinking that the hostel staff must have somehow known we were drinking and had come to throw us out. In the blink of an eye, we managed to hide both bottles and all three cups before I opened the door. Turns out we had nothing to worry about as it was just Marcella and Iris, our Dutch friends from our old dorm; we had completely forgotten we had told them to come and join the party too. They were highly amused that we had thought we were going to get caught, and Iris told us she had played drinking games downstairs in the kitchen before so there was nothing to worry about.
Iris and Marcella couldn't come out with us as they were both under 21, so we all sat in our room for a while. Kitty and I were entertaining the other three with our Bane and Batman voice impressions. Eventually we realised it was nearly midnight and we should probably go out!!
As we got on the subway, we realised we didn't have a clue where we were going! In typical fashion we just decided to wing it. What a wonderful decision this turned out to be...
We got off the subway at 5th Avenue and wondered around for a bit before deciding to get in a taxi and asking them to take us to the nearest bar. The taxi driver told us there weren't going to be many places still open for long as it had gone midnight but drove us to what we later found out was West Village where we jumped out. Everything we walked past seemed to be just about closing. And then... We stumbled across a dingy looking bar which seemed to still be open. It also had a faded sign outside which read 'live blues and jazz'. Why not?
We went inside and down the steps. It was pretty small, relatively dingy, with a couple of tables and chairs, a bar at the end, and a piano surrounded by stools. There was no music playing, even after we had bought a drink and sat down. Quite a few people were milling about, and most of them seemed to know each other. After about fifteen minutes or so, a woman appeared and sat down at the piano. She began to play broadway songs, and as if it was planned, everyone in the bar all joined in singing. We were shocked to say the least. Elgin said it felt like we had just walked onto the set of Glee! At first we didn't know the songs, then we started to be able to sing along when she played 'I'm so Pretty' from West Side Story. It got even better when 'Consider Yourself' and 'Oom-pah-pah' from Oliver! turned up.
By this point we were feeling braver, so ventured over to the piano. I told her that I was appreciating the Oliver! being from London and Kitty asked if she would play some Annie. She was very excited by both of these comments and gladly agreed. We took some empty seats around the piano and had the time of our lives!
Everyone else in the room seemed to be either musical theatre students, drop outs, or wannabes. An excellent combination. After 'Tomorrow', 'Hard Knock Life' and 'Maybe' from Annie, there was some Hairspray, some Wicked, 'Big Spender' etc. The girl playing the piano was hilarious and made some excellent one off remarks as well as
laughing at how hilarious everyone sounded singing together, especially when people didn't know the words. My personal highlight was when she stood up and shouted over everyone 'Hey, I've got a question..' waited for everyone to go quiet, then sang, 'Is this the real life?' It was definitely one of the more interesting versions of Bohemian Rhapsody I have ever had the chance to listen to. Or sing for that matter! Kitty and I were loving life. Elgin didn't know as many of the songs, but was still thoroughly enjoying herself!
It must have been about 3am by the time we left. We found out the bar was called Marie's Ruin, so if you love musical theatre and are ever in New York on a Tuesday night, you know where to go!
It seemed to take forever to get back to the hostel and by the time we got to bed it was about 5 o clock, not a pleasant prospect when we were planning to be up around 7am to go and queue for show tickets.
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