Where do you like to shop in Madrid? "A girl shop called La
Rosa Que No Muere. It's a small shop in a great little shopping
area. They have really cool stuff, like great jewelry and jeans. El
Corte Inglés is a department store that is everywhere. Those are
fun to go into. You can find everything. It's not, like, super
expensive, but they are nice. Definitely by Spanish standards, a
nice department store."
What are your favorite places for dinner? "When I get tired
of eating Spanish
food, I go to this Japanese restaurant called
Tsunami. It's just a modern, really nice Japanese restaurant with
really good food. Then if you want a meal that's not so expensive,
there is a chain of places called Museo del Jamón. You can have
paella and if you eat meat, the jamón Serrano, the ham. I like
going there for an inexpensive bite to eat. There is a great
seafood restaurant in
Madrid called La Trainera. It's more upscale,
but not a foreboding kind of atmosphere. Just delicious."
What do you do at night? "The great thing about Madrid is
that it really gets going every single night. It's not like New
York where there is a rope and they won't let you into a club.
Everyone can go. There's a place I like called Fortuny. It's a
disco, and they have a big outdoor area and people are out there
just having drinks when it's nice weather. Inside, it's cool.
There's the dance floor and there are sofas. It has a nice
atmosphere. You can see flamenco shows in Madrid, but it's pretty
touristy, because it's not really indigenous to that part of
Spain."
Do you stay out late? "Yeah. They don't eat until 10:30 or
11 at night. Then they'll go out after that. So if you go to a club
at 1 a.m., it's just kind of getting going. They will go home and
sleep for four hours or something and they'll get up and go to
work. They'll go home after lunch and have a nice three-hour nap,
then they go back to work again. I'm not a big napper, but I
definitely like to sit down. My Spanish father, he goes out
[meaning to sleep] after lunch. We all kind of, you know, sit down
and put our feet up, maybe doze off, or maybe just read. It's nice
to have that quiet time to digest."