More features:

• Albanian cuisine today

  All that fat, all that sugar and all that drippy oil, once the stamp of 500 years of Ottoman gastronomic excess, if not decadence, had been purged from the cuisine along with other purges of Albania’s past, when the communist regime took over in 1945....

• Café talk

  May I have a...  - A mund të kem një...espresso - kafe ekspresturkish coffee - kafe ...

• Travel terms

  airplane - avjon ferry - tragetiairport - aeroport car - veture, makinëtrain - ...

• The Bektashi sect

  Albania is often characterised in foreign media as a majority Muslim country, despite being rather secular in practise and also having significant numbers of Orthodox and Catholic believers....

• Driving & Surviving

  Driving in Albania could be the ride of the lifetime - though it could easily be your last ride too. Until 1990 it was only the elite that was allowed to use the total of 600 cars that were in Albania....

• Traditional dress

  Albania's rich and varied cultural heritage is perhaps best demonstrated by the incredible range of traditional clothing....

• Albanian adventure sports

  Apart from the lovely people, Albania's main attraction is the magnificent mountain scenery. Unfortunately, with bad information, roads and signposting and few travel agents organising trips into these wild places, it's not easy for foreign visitors to get the best out of the country....

• No smoking

  With one of the highest levels of smoking in Europe and cigarettes available on every street corner, many people were sceptical when the government announced a complete ban on smoking in public places from 26 May 2007....

• About TIYP / Lidhur me këtë udhëzues

  The Tirana In Your Pocket city guide is the only dedicated English-language guidebook to Albania‘s capital, and is part of a Europe-wide series of acclaimed city guides....

• Where to find Tirana In Your Pocket

  Full 52-page print copies of Tirana In Your Pocket (500 lek, €4) are available at the following places in Tirana....

• Expat activities

  New expat arrivals and any stray foreigners that find themselves wandering Tirana are welcome to mingle with Tirana's small but active group of expats....

• Menu decoder

  This should help you figure out what just slipped down your throat. Meat & Fish beef - biftek chicken ...

• Table talk

  Welcome!Mirëseerdhët!What do you recommend?Çfarë rekomandoni?I would like... do të preferoja... May I have a....

• Drink ujë, not aqua

  Order a bottle of mineral water with your meal, and chances are that you'll get sparkling water that was shipped all the way from France, Italy or further away – usually at a high price for both the environment and the diner's wallet....