Shopping

Along with the weekly bazaar, there are a few permanent shops on the compound. There's a mini strip-mall-ish place off in one corner, where locals sell jewelry, clothing and pirated movies. The prices are a bit higher than the open-air Friday bazaar but the stuff doesn't smell quite so bad.

Then there are the PX's, run by several different nationalities. There's no US PX here - for that we have to walk over to Camp Eggers - but we do have British, Italian and Danish shops, plus a mystery one whose nationality I can't quite identify.

The PX's all take Euro's primarily (tho they'll take dollars too), and while there is some overlap in what they carry, each seems to have its own unique set of stuff. Different types of cookies and candies and toiletries in each one, of course, depending on the national preferences. Some sell baseball caps and t-shirts, some have postcards, and one even sells wine glasses, in sets of four and sets of six. Not quite sure who's buying those or what they're drinking out of them, since vino is prohibito. Interestingly, I have yet to find a single coffee mug for sale at any of the PX's.

The PX's each have a little cafe or restaurant attached. Chiano's is our favorite - it's the Italian place and it's got great espresso & pizza (though I'm still not used to drinking espresso from a small plastic cup). The hot chocolate at the Danish PX was way better than Chiano's though, while the British hot chocolate was somewhere inbetween. But hey, for 1 euro, I really can't complain.