It's all about commerce here. The hustle, the bustle. Everyone trying to make a buck. Survival depends on earning a few dinars every day and this is how many get it done. It means that competition is fierce and prices are low.
6 AM 
6 PM
Sometimes they are closed. Usually only early in the morning or very late at night. Mostly the shops are open, though. Seven days per week, 14 to 16 hours per day. These people know how to work.
Construction: 
It's strange to see them pouring concrete floors on buildings propped up with these sticks. It seems to work though. You see trucks full of poles moving from site to site throughout the city.
Kiosk: 
One of the more ornamental kiosks in Sulaymaniya. Most vendors sell from shacks.
Guards: 
At the hotel or out on the street, these guys are your lifeline. Every 50 or so meters, on the main streets you will find a guard. The guy with the hat is a traffic cop. They will do spot checks and make sure the streets are not blocked with parked cars. They will wave and smile unless they are looking for something to happen. Then they are tense and it shows.
Off to School: 
Each morning groups of kids in uniform will pass by, headed to school. They are just like kids at home, except they are dressed in similar fashion and they act respectfully. OK maybe they are not at all like the kids at home!
Street bankers: 
There are real banks in Iraq but there is no international banking. There are no credit cards and no mail service. So real banks are used for bank accounts and not much else. If you want to exchange dollars for dinars or vice-versa, these guys are the guys for the job. They will give you a good exchange rate too; probably better than the bank.
Weekend picnics: 
Picnics on a Friday is what summer is all about in Kurdistan. Families head for whatever slice of land they can find and celebrate all day. There is food, music and dancing. If the picnic is near a river, so much the better but even the bare fields are covered with picnickers.
Street Life: 
It's dirty, it's busy, it's noisy. It looks like mass chaos and it is. It is a cornucopia to bedazzle your senses and it does. It is everything that could drive you to crave the wilderness and more. There is, however, no dog poop on the sidewalks. So it is better than The Netherlands.
License plates: 
This is 23794 licensed in El Iraq and the town of Erbil. You read right to left. Only the Arabic numbers 9, 1 and 0 are similar to English. Some cities will not allow cars from other cities to come into their city. There are guards and checkpoints outside each city to prevent this. No laws exist to allow for appeal. If the town of Mosul does not want cars from Erbil to enter, they go home or around. Simple as that.
The Turkish border: 
Unreal. Trucks lined up for miles and miles on either side. I'm told that it's the same situation where Iraq borders other countries. Trucks wait for weeks to cross over the border. Vendors sell food and water to them during the hot summer days.