Money

It's crazy dealing with all this different money. $1=@50 dinar. I got $80 out of the bank today. That's nearly 4,000 dinar! Imagine going around with $5,000 in your pocket. They have 10, 20, 50, and 100, 500, and 1,000 denominations. But no one can ever cash the 500 or 1,000 ones so you have to carry all bills 100 and under. It feels like $5,000 to me but in fact the 100dn is only $1.50. I went out to dinner tonight. It was 380dn. I left a 60dn tip. It felt so weird, like I was leaving him $60 but it was only a little more than $1.

Then I have euros in my pocket too because now that I've reached Macedonia I can start using euros. I hope to switch entirely to euros soon. I don't know what Albania will do - I'll probably have to continue using both euros and local currency for awhile. Small stores will only take local cash though you can pay for larger items with euros.