Elf's Shrine

I had an initial plan of going to the Berlin Wall (it is a must for me to go to the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November) and to Checkpoint Charlie. I also thought I should go to Charlottenburg which is a palace on the western side of Berlin. However, I was loathe to leave the hotel in the morning although I woke at 0600.

It was late morning before I actually left the hotel and I got the Wall around noon. Possibly the best place to view the wall is along Niederkirchenstraße as there is an exhibition called "Topographie des Terrors" there as well. There are plenty of photos and information available and the best part is, admission is free for this.

After spending time in the exhibition and the wall, I walked over to Checkpoint Charlie because I wanted to visit the Museum for Checkpoint Charlie, however I changed my mind once I got there and decided to continue on to the Deutches Historiches Museum instead. Once there I was told that because today is the 9th of November, admission is free. My Birthday is powerful in Germany. Spent about 2 hours in there and by the time I left, it was too dark to take photos of the Berliner Dom but I went anyway. The Berliner Dom is an actual church (or cathedral?) so you can only visit when there are no services. 

After spending some time sitting in Lustgarten viewing Berliner Dom, I walked down to Alexanderplatz to take the U Bahn to Eberswalder Straße and went to a Singaporean Restaurant named "Asin" along Oderberger Straße. I wanted to see for myself what this "Singaporean" restaurant would turn out to be like.

Upon entering, you are greeted by statuettes of elephants and buddhas. I have no clue how that is Singaporean, really but then again I think The Amazing Race once portrayed us as greeting with both hands clapsed together in prayer ala Thailand style so I guess it's probably just playing to the European concept of Singapore.

The menu was mildly curious. I could not recognise most of the stuff. The only thing that I thought I could recognise was "Daging Sate" but then the explanation listed chicken as the meat in this dish (daging means lamb). I ordered an Ayam Asin, a hot tea and a cola. They served a soup as appetiser, it tasted like a tom yam (or maybe a watered down laksa), with something like a slice of prata on the side for you to dip with. So far.... quite un-Singaporean.

The main was served as a rice (bowl large enough for 2 actually), a bowl of the actual main (in my case the chicken was stir fried with cucumber slices, tomato slices, button mushrooms and bamboo shoots) and a bowl of salad. It's actually a very large serving so if you are going to visit this place, do consider only ordering one main for 2 people if your appetite is not big.

Although the dishes were, in my opinion, very un-Singaporean... I must say the food itself was quite tasty. At least they didn't serve Singapore noodles. That, would have been crazy.

After dinner, back to hotel! :D