My Madrid - Francisco Rodriguez Veiga

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Francisco (Fran), at Café Madrid (c/ Mesón de Paños, 6 - Metro: Opera) to talk about the International Evenings that are held there every Wednesday. Afterwards I invited him to take part in the 'My Madrid' section of this site.

Fran is a freelance legal consultant for the telecoms industry. He has a background in languages - he speaks English, Russian, Italian, French and German - and this ties in with his passion: meeting people at the International Evenings in Café Madrid. Fran has been running the language evenings at Café Madrid since 2000 and says: "everybody is welcome and for free can meet a lot of people from a number of countries and exchange culture and languages". Here are the answers to the questions I emailed him:

Favourite Bar/Café - Café Madrid (c/ Escalinata - Opera)
Favourite Dish - Gazpacho / Any fish / Ice cream
Favourite Tapas - Gambas (Prawns), Tortilla (Spanish Omelette), Pulpo (Octopus)
Favourite Restaurant - Maceiras (c/ Huertas, 66) 
Favourite Shop - Mercado de Fuencarral (Market)
Best time of year in Madrid - The whole year
Favourite Barrio - La Latina - it has everything I like: it's a very nice old quarter with amazing buildings, churches and views, and at the same it's very lively, full of restaurants, tapas bars and clubs.
Favourite Building(s) - Palacio Real (The Royal Palace).
My favourite day trip from Madrid is to ... Segovia, it's a wonderful old city and very near you can find a superb palace with beautiful gardens surrounded by mountains
A perfect ‘night out’ in Madrid would …Tapas bars, International Evening at Café Madrid and a late club
My favourite walk …From Paseo de Rosales to San Francisco Church and then getting into La Latina

Comments

[Gwendolyn Alston]

I would like to invite everyone to visit my new website: mocaenboca.com. It is a bilingual dating site geared especially to Madrid's café culture. It was launched January 2006 and we are looking to make it into a growing community and a key reference for expats and Spaniards who want to meet new people: new friends, new partners, new loves. Enjoy!