15 amazing things you probably didn’t know about Albania
TAlbania today marks the 104th anniversary of independence from the Ottoman Empire. We’ve decided to celebrate by recalling 15 things you probably didn’t know about the small country that boasts both the Ionian and Adriatic coasts (you can have this fact for free).
1. What is Albania?
First and foremost, Albanians do not call their homeland Albania, rather the name of the nation in its native language is Albania.
2. More Albanians live abroad than inside
The Albanian diaspora is large, stretching from its neighbors like Greece and Turkey to nations as far away as the USA and Canada – so much so that it is believed that the number of Albanians living outside Albania is greater than the country’s population by nearly 3. million. Hundreds of thousands emigrated after the fall of the communist regime in 1991 and the economic crisis that followed.
3. You cannot set the time with Albanian buses
Albanian buses (called furgons) have no schedule, they leave when they are good and ready – or full.
4. There is only one Nobel Prize winner
Mother Teresa, although born in the then Ottoman Empire and now in the capital of Macedonia, Skopje, was Albanian. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work helping the poor in Calcutta, India.
5. Smiling and nodding have different connotations in Albania
Albanians shake their heads when they say “no” and shake their heads when they say “yes”. Be careful answering questions with your head.
6. It is one of the most endangered countries in Europe
According to a 2015 World Risk Report compiled by the UN, Albania is one of the countries in Europe most at risk from natural disasters. The only one in such a category – with the exception of Serbia and the neighboring Netherlands – Albania is considered to be at risk of flooding. In 2010, the country was hit by major floods, forcing up to 7,000 families to evacuate.
7. It was a communist island
In the sense that no one is an island, Albania was an island. A single communist state in a sea of communism. Behind the Iron Curtain, Albania was neither part of the Soviet Union – or one of its satellite states – nor Tito’s Yugoslavia, so it was in a sense an independent communist state in the second half of the 21st century. to. The People’s Republic of Albania became in 1976 the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. The country even came into conflict with most of the world’s communist powers. Leader (and dictator) Enver Hoxha severed ties with the USSR, withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, and severed relations with the People’s Republic of China. He was also consistently hostile to neighboring Yugoslavia.
8. It’s turning a military bunker island into a tourist attraction
Tend to attract more tourists to the country, Albania has started the transformation of the island of Sazan, a Cold War-era military island, complete with a bunker designed to withstand a nuclear attack, in a must-see attraction. The base is still technically operational, with two sailors remaining on the two-square-mile island to provide shelter to the navy patrolling Albanian waters. Plans are being made to make the island more welcoming to visitors – however, a proposed Las Vegas-style casino has already been rejected.
9. There are still more facts related to the bunker
So we’ve had bunker mentality and bunker islands, but this is the real bunker icing on the bunker cake. Albania is full of bunkers. There are an average of 5.7 for every square kilometer and more than 750,000 across the country. Built under the communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who feared attacks from his enemies (almost all of them), most of the bunkers were never used and were largely abandoned after the fall of communism, although today a number of them are available. good use as home, cafe or museum.
9. You know a traffic light when you see one
In 1995, drivers in Shkodër in northern Albania refused to pay a traffic light tax of 2,000 lek (£13) because their town has no traffic lights. “It’s absurd,” one driver told Reuters at the time.
10. There was a teflon king
Zogu I is not the name of the extraterrestrial invader of earth in 2120, but the name of the king of Albania from 1928 to 1939. The dictatorial ruler was the subject of some 55 assassination attempts, including one in which Zogu claimed to be the only modern leader who ever returned fire on his would-be assassin.
11. Lord Byron was a fan
The eccentric romantic visited Albania in 1809 as part of his grand tour of the Mediterranean. In a letter addressed to his mother, he wrote that Albanians have the most “magnificent” dresses in the world and told about his horse riding in the country. “The land of Albania. Let me bend my eyes upon thee, thou fierce nurse of wild men,” he wrote in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage to Countrymen. You may follow in his footsteps, with Albania on horse tour.
12. There are lots of flowers
Although small, Albania boasts more than 3,250 species of plants, which make up 30 percent of all flora in Europe. The best places to see the country’s colorful reserves are its national parks, of which there are 15: Llogara is the best for living flora and fauna, while Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, offers sites archaeological dating back to the Romans.
13. …but no medals
Albania has never won a medal at the Olympics. His most popular events are weightlifting, shooting and wrestling.
14. It was once home to the “cannabis capital of Europe”
Lazarati, a small village in southern Albania, was once considered the “cannabis capital of Europe” and home to a large amount of mafia activity, producing around 900 tons of marijuana annually. In 2014, 800 police officers were deployed to the area to crack down on flagrant violations of the rules of not growing weed trucks every day – authorities took control of the village after a five-day shootout with heavily armed residents. The US State Department, however, says that Albania remains a major source country for drugs.
15. …And one of the most beautiful cities in Europe
The Albanian city of Berat, once a frontier town of the Byzantine Empire, boasts an old town described by Unesco and rated as one of the most beautiful places in Europe, according to, oddly enough, a survey by the Japanese tourism board.
Read more fantastic facts
25 amazing facts about Estonia
25 amazing facts about Moldova