quatre gatz

im surprised i havent written about this. in fact, im sure i have, well not 100 percent sure but it would be pretty strange if i havent because this was one of those times, ya know?
so as we all know i had some visitors in september, within 2 weeks of being in barcelona. as i have stated, i did enjoy this; family is always comforting, especially thousands of miles away from home. i go to meet them at their hotel and they have asked the concierge to recommend to them some delectable places to dine; while she wasn't their definition of "helpful," she did offer a couple of spots, one of which turned out to be a really "well-known" place, the quatre gatz, where picasso and friends used to chillax and be awesome in the midst of making their mark in the world. my visitors got very excited, increasing with walking in the charming gothic quarter streets and finally seeing what appears to be a hole in the wall. i do give props to the owners of quatre gatz: they've done a standup job at maintaining an authentic atmosphere, it would be easy to picture the artists discussing their next big work if i could see past the shopping bags and english words being tossed around.
so we get a table and look at the menu. food looks good, one of the visitors and i always end up getting two plates and splitting them because we're kind of related, and the other one is somewhat of a sissy when it comes to food, especially when in a foreign country! (figure that one out, its beyond me) our camerero comes over and says hello and asks us what we would like, in spanish of course. ordering the wine is easy, its just a point and nod kind of thing, but one of the visitors really has a hard time not talking so he begins to speak in english about something, i'd already hid my head in my cloth napkin upon seeing him open his mouth. here we go. i see this kind of thing go down in the states with people that speak english and get embarrassed, i was not ready to see this adding a language barrier to the equation. i try to interject in spanish as the visitor begins to make jokes as well as try to get the visitor to understand that our courteous waiter, who keeps his smile on while the visitors spews words he doesn't understand, doesn't understand. i tried to say something about how he's trying to joke, sorry, but the visitor continues. ordering food is kind of a blur also, as the visitors ask about the ingredients, etc., etc., and by now our camerero has asked an english speaking camerero to the table. it just got too weird for everyone, i think. nonetheless, the food was good, except for the sissy visitor not getting what she had ordered--horrors!!!--and sending it back. let's just say, in general, based on trying all the food we had at the table, the quatre gatz is definitely not famous for its cuisine. that's kind of rude but sorry, lets be real. good cheesy sauce on the overcooked asparagus, though!
and i guess to top it all off, one of the visitors asked the spanish camerero to take a picture of us three at the table. i felt really cool. the anti tourist sentiment overwhelmed me, i could hardly feign a smile so i hid my mouth with my clasped hands on which my chin rested. the other two were happy, that's all that counts.