Central Park, NYC & My Favourite Restaurants

I visited New York just before Christmas and although the city was awash with Christmas shoppers and business people, during the day Central Park was a picture of tranquility. I went for a run every day  I was there and each day stopped to take a photo at almost the same spot.

My trip was only a few days and mainly consisted of eating my way through the city so I thought I'd share a selection of my favourite places I ate while there. Although I tried a couple of places on my Travel To Do List (I would highly recommend breakfast at the Parker Meridien for a nice treat and delicious French toast!), 3rd Avenue in Midtown turned out to be my favourite place to hang out at night. My personal favourites were as follows:

Pie Face: We may have gone here every night after dinner for dessert...  (It was the holidays!). Their Lamingtons and mini apple pies are particularly delicious.

Blockhead's Burrito: Very laid back and more of a bar atmosphere than restaurant. I have to admit when I first stepped in it was because the restaurant I wanted to go to was booked for a party and I was slightly skeptical, but everything was very fresh and delicious! The portions are huge, but somehow it was so tasty I managed. Very wallet friendly and a good place to hang out after work.

Nana Sushi Lounge: I may be slightly biased seen as this was the first time I had tried dinosaur rolls (sushi restaurants where I'm from are not particularly adventurous) but everything I ate was delicious.

Athens

(Academy of Athens)

(Athens University)(National Library)

As you have probably heard Athens has been having some economic/political problems which led to a few strikes earlier this year and the bombing of a bank which killed three people.
We stayed at the Melia Hotel Athens, which ended up being really close to where the bank bombing took place. It was still all black and there was piles of flowers and photos outside, it was really sad.The ground floor restaurant in our hotel was closed when we arrived as there were lots of cracks in the glass from where rocks had also been thrown. A little disconcerting.

Anyway, the first night we decided to go out and see Sex and the City 2 since it had just come out. When we left the theater at around 11:30 p.m. the feeling outside had dramatically changed, there was literally no one about, but there were police officers with large guns walking around and we encountered a few guys who made very lewd comments. Overall, it left us with a very uneasy feeling and we seriously considered leaving right then and going to Santorini early.
We decided to stay though but needless to say didn't walk anywhere at night again.

Athens is not a very pretty city but it was nice to see the Athens trilogy, which consists of the National Library, Athens University, and Academy of Athens (all pictured above). We had a wonderful dinner one night at a restaurant in Syntagma Square, where there are a few fancy hotels. It was hellishly expensive (and I think we were the only ones under the age of 30 in there paying for our own dinners) but seriously yummy and had a lovely view of the acropolis.

So I'm adding Athens to the list of places I won't be visiting again but am glad I saw once.

Pic of the sunset from the rooftop pool at the hotel.