Udhëtim në Shqipëri | Travelling in Albania

[Football Rules]

Tirana , Albania

Tirana is the capital of Albania, and the biggest city of the country.It has a population of around 750.000 people and is the industrial , political and cultural center of the country. Its architecture bears considerable influence of Italian as well as Turkish monuments, lying as it does exactly between Rome and Istanbul. The Skënderberg Square is a huge open space in the centre of the city while Mt. Dajti, at 5,030 ft, towers over the eastern side. Tirana is dotted by many museums.

Attractions

Principal Attractions of the city include:


- The monument of our national hero ”Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeu” placed in “Skanderbeg” square.

- National Historic Museum.

- The Castle of Dorsi in the surroundings of Peza, which belongs to ancient Illyrian culture.

- The Castle of Petrela situated in the south of Tirana, on the right of the main street Tirana–Elbasan.

- The Castle of Bashtova built in the late middle age in the 14-th century, when the feudal system appeared in Albania. It is situated in west of Rrogozhina, 3-4 km north from the cast in the Sea of Shkumbin River. It served the Venetians to defend the sea and river wharfages.

- The Castle of Preza built from the Turkish after Skanderbeg’s death in 1468. It belongs to the end of 15th century and is situated in the western chain of the hills that surround the field of Tirana that overlook the area of Kruja as a solid area of revolts.

- The mosque of Ethem Beu situated in the center of Tirana and built in 1789, as well as the Clock Tower built in 1830. Both these objects are historically well known for the capital city.

- The Ministries represent great architectonical values; they were built in 1930 in the period when Albania was a Monarchy and under the government of king Zog. After the German invasion, that means in the aftermath of World War II in 1966, there were built the Palace of Culture and the Theatre of Opera and Ballet, in 1968 it was built the monument of Skanderbeg, in 1981 the National Historic Museum and in 1987, The International Cultural Center,

- Archeological Museum,

- Gallery of Arts,

- Exposition of Popular Culture.

It is always very pleasant to make a promenade in the Grand Park of Tirana, which lies in the southern part of the city and occupies a superficies of 230 hectares. In the centre of this park there is the artificial lake with a superficies of 55 hectares.

Tirana is one of the youngest and most colourful capitals in Europe.
It offers modern architecture as well as great nightclubs , hotels and restaurants of all kinds.

[Sergei]

Great! I didn't expect you guys to catch on so fast.

When you're ready for it to be added, just leave me a message in the Eastern European Traveler: Travel Guide thread.

[Football Rules]

ok, np.

[Football Rules]

Some curiosities about Tirana:

Tirana is 110 m above sea level.

The average annual temperatures are in July 24°C and in January 7°C.

Annual rainfall is 1200mm.

Tirana is on the same parallel as Naples, Madrid and Istanbul and on the same meridian as Budapest and Krakov.

The surface of Tirana City is 31km², while the district one is 1288km², which includes 4 centers: Tirana, Vora, Krraba and Kamza and also 150 villages.

The medium altitude of the Tirana Field is 521m, the two highest peaks are the Dajti Mountain with 1612m and the Mali me Gropa one with 1828m.

There exist three theories about the origins of the name Tirana

1-It is thought that Tirana comes from the word Theranda found in ancient Greek and Latin sources because those living there called it Të ranat (“fallen material”), because the plain was formed as a result of the strong materials, which were brought by the water from the surrounding mountains.

2- Tirana comes from Tirkan. Tirkan was a castle on the face of mount Dajti. The ruins of this ancient castle still exist, which dates back to the beginning of the first century before the birth of Christ, and which is thought to have been the castle, which the Byzantine historian named Prokop (6th Century) called the castle of Tirkan.

3- Tirana comes from Tyros (old Greek), which means dairy produce.

[genci888]

There is a nice website for reserving hotel rooms in Albania. Its http://www.albania-hotel.com/. Worth a look if you are planning to travel here.

Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs info for foreigners. Its only in Albanian, but you can ask here if you have any questions.:
http://www.mfa.gov.al/shqip/info2.asp

On the MFA website there is an OUTDATED (and not accessible by normal means) page in English with info for foreigners. It is useful for getting some general info, but don't rely on it regarding visas.
http://www.mfa.gov.al/english/info2.asp

[lakerdar123]

Another webiste to help you for your travels around Albania.

http://www.aths-travel.com/

http://united-albania.com/

[Gështenja]

I will be in Albania from June 3rd - June 25th, already purchased my ticket last week.It will be a connecting flight via Budapest, Hungary.
I will bring along the way my Nikon Coolpix S4, it has 10x zoom and 6.0 megapixels.... shown below

[Gështenja]

I'll leave home saturday morning, arrive at JFK at 5pm and depart at 6pm.
I'll be in Budapest at 8:40am sunday morning where i'll spend about 5 hours or so till i catch my next flight to Tirana.

[Pavlo]

Make sure you take tons of photos! Also if I may inquire how much did you pay for your ticket?

[Gështenja]

I got a great deal with this albanian travel agency in Northern New Jersey, the ticket costed me only 880$ round trip.

[Pavlo]

Wow that is very cheap. I know tickets to other parts of EE go from 1000 to 1300.

[Gështenja]

Yep, if i was gonna take Alitalia it would've costed me around 1200$ but i'm going with MALEV.

[lakerdar123]

wtf the tickets i found costed $1500.

[new bulgaria]

By the way, I just booked a resevation JFK - Sofia, round trip with Alitalia for $890 including taxes and fees for mid June (high season). Alitalia has a sale! You should be able to find a good deal

[genci888]

Right now, British Airways is cheaper than Alitalia.

Originally Posted by lakerdar123

wtf the tickets i found costed $1500.

Try www.orbitz.com

[lakerdar123]

whoah. thanks i just saved 600 bucks. i'm never using expedia again

[dejan]

Great! Make sure you take a lot of good pictures of Tirana as soon as you get there

Stop bitching people:p At least you don't live at the bottom of the world lol

[Czas na Żywiec]

If you're a student, STA travel has awesome deals. I looked online and the cheapest I could find rountrip Chicago - Krakow was around $1400. So I went to the STA office on campus (they also have a wesbite, but if you find an office near you, the agents who work there can find you cheaper tickets) The girl I talked to brought my price down to only $700. Albeit, I had to fly Chicago - Raleigh-Durham - London - Krakow both ways, it was well worth saving half the price. The longest layover I had was 3 hours, so definitely not a bad tradeoff for the cheaper price.

[dejan]

Actually STA travel here didn't really give me any interesting of a discount, just the same as the other travel agencies and plus i'm not too confident with JAT.

[Gështenja]

The quality of the photos should be good, here are a couple of pics i took yesterday.