So I walked into a shop in the middle of the Algerian desert to buy 3 bottles of water. The cashier tells me "that'll be 24,000". I convert it to euros and get just over 100€. I asked twice "24,000? wait what?" and got a yes both times.

I wasn't really keen on dropping 100€ on water. Even in the middle of nowhere. So I left the water with the seller and walked out empty-handed, pretty shocked by the prices.

At the shop next door, the seller was speaking in a way I couldn't understand at all, so he just grabbed 200 Algerian dinars from my hand (just under a euro). I started to think the first guy was trying to rip me off. But nope, turns out he wasn't.

Back in 1964, Algeria switched their currency to dinars at a 100-to-1 ratio, but people still haven't adjusted (!) and keep using the old currency. So prices are often quoted in old money. That means you need to divide the amount by 100. The first seller actually wanted just over a euro from me, not a hundred.

Oh, and there are no money exchange offices here. There's an official rate of 146 dinars per euro. But you can only sell euros at that rate. Then there's the black market where they exchange at 226 dinars per euro. You can literally catch money changers right on the street—these guys with thick stacks of cash. Makes you wonder how people exchange big amounts if they, say, sell an apartment or something? :)