Maria in Berlin I

STATUS: SCHON BESCHRIEBEN

Ihr Lieben,

wir haben zwei Bilder von Maria, einer blinden Künstlerin aus Kanada, bekommen. Sie war zu Besuch in Berlin und ihre Freundin Susanne hat einen Stadtbummel mit ihr gemacht. Es wäre super toll, wenn sich jemand finden würde, der ihr ihre Bilder auf englisch beschreibt…

Maria fragt auch, warum es so einen chicen Blog wie unseren nicht auch auf englisch gibt. Wir sind offenbar wirklich einzigartig:-)

(c) Marco

Description by Ulrike:

The first picture is taken in the portrait format and you are standing in front of the Brandenburg gate. You are in the very front of the picture and quite prominent as there is nobody close-by. The sky is light blue with some clouds, but you really have to tilt the picture to see it – the sky really looks overcast at first. The picture is almost divided into two parts by the pole of a street light that you are standing in front of. I will first explain what you are wearing and doing, then I will describe all that is to the right of the pole before finally describing the scenery to the left of the pole.

You are wearing black pants, they look like jeans, but it is really hard to tell if they are jeans. You are wearing dark green (I believe the technical term is forest) shoes that look like Mary Janes and that have black toes. Your shirt is a dark salmon color, the scarf is a bit lighter and matches your shirt. There is a black strap on your left should, I am assuming it belongs to a purse, but whatever it is attached to is hidden behind your left hand. You are wearing a silver watch and glasses with a reddish (or brownish, it is really hard to tell) frame. You are facing the camera, your left knee is slightly bent and your feet are about the width of one foot apart from each other. It looks like most of your weight is on your right leg as the left one is not as far back as the right one.

You are standing on the very wide sidewalk that consists of a path of marbled flagstones which are framed by cobblestone. You are standing on the flagstones, each flagstone is about five times as long as your foot  and about seven times as wide. On the right side of the picture (to your left since you are facing the picture) are the typical road barriers that the police uses to bar the roads during marathons, for example. They are red and white and I would estimate that they would probably come up to a little over half of your torso. To make sure that the barriers do not fall over, they are connected to a metal grate that lays on the floor and that gives them enough sturdiness to make sure that they do not need to be connected to stand up. The first road barrier is standing, the others behind it are folded up and leaning against something that is not in the picture.

Behind the gates (if you walk towards the Brandenburg Gate) on the border between the cobblestone sidewalk and the street (which is always blocked for cars) is a grey metal showcase with pictures in it. I can’t tell what the pictures are showing because they are simply too small.

Two people are standing behind the showcase and a man is walking past them. The people standing there are mostly hidden by the showcase, but one of them is wearing jeans and a red jacket or  sweater while the other one is wearing a light brown, almost beige, coat. The man walking past them (away from the Brandenburg Gate) is wearing jeans and a dark jacket.

To the left of the showcase and to your right, two men with bikes are standing on the road. The one closer to the showcase is wearing a light bike helmet and what looks like a light full-body suit. He is holding on to the saddle and the handle of his bike and looking down at the saddle. The front of his body is facing the bike and the bike is standing parallel to the curb. Behind him, a man wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a red and blue picture on it is sitting on his bike, his left foot is standing on the street while his right heel is leaning on the curb, his toes are facing towards the sky. It looks like he is wearing tennis shoes. He is also wearing a backpack and has an additional black strap going from his right shoulder to his left hip. It could be a camera bag, but it is hard to tell. These two men are at about the height of your shoulder.

Behind them, on the other side of the street, there is a ship. It is hard to estimate how big it is, but it could easily be about 40 meters long. While the ship is really standing to the right of the Brandenburg Gate, the front of the ship is pointing towards the gatehouse to the left of the Brandenburg Gate. The bottom half of it is painted red, then there is a small white line and the top is dark blue. The boat bridge is located in what looks like the middle of the ship, it is white and a bit rusty and it has the European flag (dark blue with golden stars in a circle in the middle of it) on it. Underneath the flag it says PI-7283, but I really don’t know what that stands for. On the left side of the flag, there is a small window. The shape of the boat bridge looks like a big rectangular chimney with a smaller one on top. Window, flag and writing are located on the bigger “chimney”, but the smaller one starts right above the flag and the window. The name of the ship is “Europa” (it says so on the very front) and there is a white sign hanging from the ship. The upper part of the sign has a black rectangle painted on it and in it, in white, it says “SOS – save our seas” Underneath it, still in the black rectangle, it says Greenpeace. A red fish is below the left hand bottom corner of the black rectangle. At the very end of the ship, I can see iron bars, the shape of them makes me think of the top part of a deck chair – two long iron poles, one on each side of the ship, are connected by another pole on the very top and they are leaning to the right, towards the end of the ship. Two smaller poles are pushing against the long poles to make sure that they stay in place and if I am not completely mistaken, the fishing nets (not in the picture) are connected to those poles while on sea – but this is a girl from the mountains trying to explain a ship…

A woman in a light green coat and dark pants is standing in front of the ship, with her bike in front of her and she is looking at the sign, while others are just walking by without looking (they are too small to be properly described).

Behind your right side, there is the pole that I was talking about earlier and that I believe belongs to a streetlight. I can’t tell you for sure because the top is not in the picture, but the dark color and the shape (it is not a straight pole, it is decorated with occasional spheres, which are getting smaller the further up the pole they are located at) make me believe that it is a streetlight. Next to the pole and behind you, a man and a woman are looking at something. The man is facing the Brandenburg Gate (and you are therefore standing behind his back), but he is looking down. He is wearing a blue shirt and has very little hair – the top of his head is bald while there is a shadow of dark hair in the back. He is almost entirely covered by you, with the exception of the back of his head, his left arm and about half of his back. To his left, a woman is standing sideways, facing the street. She is wearing dark pants and a blue top, it could be a denim jacket, but I am not sure. She is also carrying a black backpack over her right shoulder; the other strap is hanging down. She has black, shoulder-length hair and seems to be waiting for the man to do something.

A man wearing light pants, a light green sweater and a dark jacket is walking towards you. He is looking at something to his right and he is about 20 meters behind you, right next to the man and the woman standing at the pole. Three more people (it looks like they are all men) are walking behind him, the one to the left is wearing dark pants and a dark top , the one in the middle is wearing light blue jeans, a red top and what looks like a denim jacket. He is looking at the man to his right, the one wearing dark clothes, and his left hand is on the back of his head. I believe he has light brown hair (I can’t tell the other man’s hair color). The third man looks blond to me and is wearing blue jeans and a dark blue top. It looks as if the man on the far left (the one wearing all dark clothes) could be the father of the other two, at least age-wise.

Behind them is the gatehouse that is attached to the Brandenburg Gate. The gatehouse has four pillars (only three are visible, the one to the very left is cut off by the border of the picture), a triangular roof and the walls behind the pillars are a very light salmon color. There is a wooden door between the two middle pillars and the door has four glass panels in it. A red and white sign is in attached to the bottom left hand panel, but I can’t tell what it says. Above the door, there is a windo and it looks as if the left part of it is open. A couple of people and bike riders are standing in front of the gate, but they are too far away to be properly described.

Finally, the Brandenburg Gate – you are standing in front of it and the pole of the streetlight is located between you and the Brandenburg Gate. It consists of twelve columns, six on each side and these six columns form five passageways. The Gate is a very light brown and the quadriga on top is greenish from corrosion. The quadriga consists of four horses and Victoria in a chariot, but the chariot is not visible and Victoria is hardly visible because there is a horse in front of her. Victoria is carrying a pole and it looks like on top of it, there is an eagle with its wings spread open – I have tried to google what she is carrying, but I can’t find any information about it, I will, however, look for more information and let you know. Behind the gate, I can see silver metal poles that make me believe that they are part of a stage (lights are hanging from the horizontal poles connecting the vertical ones), but I can’t really tell if it is a stage or simply part of a construction zone.

The entire atmosphere of the picture is very placid – while it is true that you can tell that people are walking, nobody seems to be running, everyone is just strolling and it looks like the perfect snapshot of a quiet afternoon in Berlin.

I hope I was able to help you – this is the first time I am describing a picture and I have tried to pay as much attention to detail as possible, however, if you have any questions, please let me know.