Tirana, the capital of Albania

Tirana is now a very colourful city and quite a contrast with the drab grey place it was in communist times. Many of its Stalinist apartment blocks are now painted in surprising colours and, while in Socialist Albania private car ownership was all but impossible, the city now is very busy with mainly Mercedes Benz cars racing around the wide boulevards and around Skanderbeg Square. One of the strangest buildings is the Pyramid, which started as a museum dedicated to communist dictator Enver Hoxha; it was designed by his daughter and son in law. It is now a convention centre. Just in front of it hangs the Bell of Peace, forged from bullet cases collected by Albanian schoolchildren during the anarchy that gripped the country in 1997.

Blloku was the exclusive neighbourhood where the communist rulers lived and used to be completely forbidden to enter by mere citizen until 1991. Now it is a trendy neighbourhood with nightclubs and restaurants. The bungalow that was the residence of Enver Hoxha is still there, although not open to the public. The nearby Sky Club Panoramic Bar and Restaurant on the top floor of an office block gives a great view over Blloku and the rest of Tirana.

On the southwestern part of the city, at the end of the wide Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit is the University of Tirana. Behind the University is , in Parku Kombëtar, with a memorial for British service men who died in the Second World War. Another memorial honours the Frashëri brothers (Abdyl, Naim and Sami), who were the driving force behind the Rilindja Kombëtarë, the Albanian National Renaissance movement at the end of the 19th century. The hills on the southeastern part of the city around the artificial lake were afforested, thus opening the new Park, which is connected with the Botanical Garden and the Zoo.

	Skanderbeg's statue	Sheshi Skënderbeu	The Pyramid	Bell of Peace
	View over Blloku	Enver Hoxha's house	Cafe in Blloku	Apartment block
	Tirana University	British Memorial	Frashëri Memorial	Tirana Panorama

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