Literature
Get to know Albania on a couch
Albania Travel Guide 2020
Albania is a fascinating country that more and more Finnish tourists want to explore. The country has much more to offer than an affordable price level and a warm climate.
Albania: Travel Guide 2020 is a concise and up-to-date information pack full of useful information about Albanian culture, various attractions, restaurants, accommodation options, shopping, transport links, nature and many other topics of interest to travelers.
Plenty of practical tips and hints will help make your trip to Albania rewarding, comfortable and easy.
Free, Lea Ypi
An impressive memoir of a closed Albania, tinged with black humour.
Lea Ypi grew up in Albania in the 1980s, under the yoke of Stalinism. The only way out of the country was to escape. Life was dominated by scarcity and queues, executions and a secret police force that was everywhere. But for Lea, Albania was a warm home where neighbours helped each other.
In 1990, everything changed almost overnight. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled, and people were allowed to vote and say what they wanted. Meanwhile, the country went bankrupt and violence took to the streets.
A gripping bestseller about a young girl in the midst of her world falling apart. The work asks what freedom and democracy really are.
“Fighting cynicism and political apathy becomes what one might call a moral duty. For me, it is more like a debt that I have to pay to the people of the past. I wrote the story because I wanted to explain, to massage reconciliation and to keep fighting.” Lea Ypi
More information: the wonderful journeys of Anu
Pirjo Mellanen’s first travel book I traveled to Albania was written in 2012, when Albania turned 100 years old. In addition to the events described in the diary, it also contains a small dictionary for Finns. There is a small batch of printed books left and it is also available as an e-book.
“Because of the realistic narrative of the book, I decided to explore the country, it also tells negative experiences. Now I have bought an apartment in Albania myself! ”
Publisher: Reunalla.fi
Trip to Albania, Maarit Verronen
Journey to Albania is a travelogue published by Maarit Verros in 1997. The book tells the story of the author’s trip to Albania in 1995.
The book turned out to be quite interesting. It contains a smooth narrative and it is very thought-provoking to compare Albania in the book with Albania today.
Although many things were different when the book was written, in Butrint, water still covers the front of the amphitheatre and sand covers the floor mats. Gjirokaster still hosts folk music festivals and there’s an airplane corpse on the castle platform that doesn’t fit in at all 🙂
I recommend!
Mirësevini! Welcome to the land of friendly people, Albania in the fabulous mountains!
Pirjo Mellanen’s second travel book about Albania tells about everyday difficulties and country customs that a tourist should know, but it also tells about wonderful sunrises behind dark mountains, happy days on the turquoise seashore, trips to small villages, old monasteries and churches.
During the excursions you will find restaurants in the strangest places and the hospitality of strangers will surprise tired walkers. On the other hand, foreigners have to correct the misconceptions and unrealistic expectations of locals about studying and working in the Nordic countries – as well as the prejudices of Finns about Albania. After ten years in Albania, the Mellas have taken root deeper and deeper in their second homeland.
Publisher: Reunalla.fi
Albania (Enchantment of the World)
Learn about the country’s history, culture, people and much more
Located along the west coast of Europe’s Balkan Peninsula, Albania is a nation that has experienced tremendous changes in recent decades. Once a communist nation, its current government was established after a Revolution in the early 1990s. Since then, it has been steadily growing and changing. Readers will find out what it is like to live in Albania today, explore the country’s long history, and get an insider’s view of its towns, cities, and wilderness.
The heart of Tirana
An award-winning author’s breathtaking novel about the journey from one end of Europe and the other
In Tirana in the early 1990s, young Bujar loses his father, and his best friend Agim feels in the wrong body. The communist dictatorship in Albania is over and the country is reaching out to Europe. The chaos caused by the collapse of society is causing the boys to take their destiny into their own hands: to flee to the coast with the intention of reaching west.
Rome, the end of the millennium: a young man is ready to do and say anything to get a new name and a new beginning. After touring half the world, he settles in Finland. What do you have to sacrifice to become yourself?
