To know more about Albania 

Albanian Books to Read: Broken April by Albania’s best known contemporary writer, Ismail Kadare, which details with the blood vendettas of the northern highlands before the 1939 Italian invasion.  Biografi by Lloyd Jones is a fanciful story set in the immediate post communist era, involving the search for Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha’s alleged double.

Albanian Folk Music To listen: Albania, Vocal and Instrumental Polyphony, an outstanding recording of traditional Albanian music.

The Balkan music at its very best!!!

A tantalizing clarinet teases the emotions and draws out the melody making every sensuos note irresistible ..... at first s-l-o-w-l-y .....then the music speeds up, with unique chords and progressions, interspersed with sharps & flats, producing the Albanian/Balkan melodies & rhythms that have me jumping up and dancing just about every time I listen.

The music increases speed to a feverish ecstatic rhythm with the clarinet as the lead instrument, accompanied by an accordian, lahute (a one-stringed upright instrument similar to the Serbian or Slavic gusle), cifteli (another stringed instrument unique to the region), and one or two drums. The folk instruments, the zurna and kaval, are replaced by the clarinet, with no apologies needed. The melodies are sometimes familiar, similar to those of Northern Greece, Macedonia (Pristina) and Serbia (Kosovo) but that's not so surprising since they belonged to Albania not too long ago. Fortunately, music has no **borders** or **politics**!

If Balkan music is your passion, look no further, buy this CD! I can't praise this CD enough! (Also, highly recommend "Kurbeti: Music of Albania's Gypsies" and "Kosovo: the Music of Albanian Kosovars").

Albanian Movies to Watch: Lamerica, a brilliant and stark look at Albanian post-communist culture.

Eating Out in Albania

Site Seeing in Albania

Accommodation in Albania 

Duty Free and Prohibited Items