When most college students go on spring break they usually want to go to Cancun or Miami Beach, not me though, this spring break I visited Columbus, Ohio. What made me drive all the way from Pittsburgh to Columbus? Why to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins play hockey of course, but instead of seeing them in my own city, my friend and I decided to inconvenience ourselves and drive three hours out of the way.

It may seem kind of silly to drive 3 hours out of town to see a sports team that usually plays about 15 minutes away from campus, but seeing a game where you are rooting for the opposing team is a completely different experience, and it is a ton of fun to visit a new hockey arena and see that teams traditions.

We checked in to our hotel, and then it was a quick 15 minute uber ride to Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets arena is in the middle of what the city has aptly named “The Arena District” it is basically the main entertainment district of the city, aside from the hockey arena there is a concert venue, a minor league baseball stadium, and a new soccer stadium, and the spaces in between is occupied by restaurants and bars.

The Arena District was straight bumpin’ pregame. Every bar was packed wall to wall with hockey fans, we walked around to a few different places until we finally found an establishment with room for us. We got some drinks and sat down for a little bit before the game. Something somewhat unexpected you see as a Penguins fan in Columbus is a lot of other Penguin fans. You’re in a different city and the walls are decorated in red and blue, but just by looking at the crowd you see lots of black and yellow, you might guess it was a Pittsburgh home game if you didn’t know any better.

When we got into the arena it really felt just like a home game. I went to the bathroom and of the 10 people in there, only 1 was a fan of the home team. The Columbus fans were clearly not thrilled of this reality, Pittsburgh is seen as one of the Blue Jacket’s biggest rivals, but to the Penguins they are just an other divisional team, they will never be as big as a rival to them as the Philadelphia Flyers or Washington Capitals. So what this relationship means as a fan is a lot of Blue Jackets fans being hostile towards the opposing team, but the opposing teams fans don’t take it seriously at all.

We got to our seats way up high in the upper bowl, and of course we got stuck in front of the most diehard group of Blue Jackets fans. From what I could tell, this group must have been season ticket holders, and other people in the section all seemed to know them, the one guy would not stop taunting the Penguins, for the entire game we heard drunken screams dissing our team. I couldn’t even be mad because he was funny, he was screaming stuff like “Crosby your ugly” (which is objectively not true) or “How does it feel to be owned by Boston?” That may have been annoying to a lot of people, but for me it completed the visiting team experience.

The game itself was pretty entertaining, The Jackets dominated much of the game but a 3^rd period comeback with some referring the home crowd disagreed with led to Penguins winning. Leaving the game was weird because the home crowd was visibly upset at the outcome, but the half of the crowd that was in black and yellow was quietly and respectfully celebrating.

After the game my friend and I walked down the road to Shake Shack to get a post-game meal where we’d catch and Uber back to our hotel. It was a fun night down at the arena, and Columbus is such a great city to visit. There is no shortage of restaurants to go to and things to do when you visit. Going to an away game is such a fun excuse to take a trip for a few days. I one day hope to see the Penguins play in all 32 cities with an NHL team, and this is now the third city I have been able to catch a game in, I can confirm that Columbus, Ohio is a great place to watch a hockey game.