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Contradictions Captial in Albania

Poor Matt Gross--didn't anyone tell the editor at the New York Times copy desk that "A Capital Full of Contradictions" is the the most overused line in all of travel? Nonetheless, Matt seems to have survived the bad hed, and his Frugal Traveler column marches on, this week through Albania.

He found Albania to be totally bizarre, which is more or less how we remember it from our visit a year ago. It feels like somewhere other than Europe, which in a sense it was, for much of the country's history anyway. Albania is between tourist mainstays Italy and Greece, remember, yet only Moldova is a poorer country on the whole of the continent.

Matt also visited Gjirokastra, which doesn't really deserve more than an afternoon, despite being a gorgeous little mountain town that was home to both novelist Ismail Kadare and former dictator Enver Hoxha.

Tirana is fun, though, and once they solve the whole lack of street signs and yawning chasms in the street that used to contain manholes thing, the country will start to fill up with more visitors who don't work for NGOs.

Related Stories:
·   A Capital Full of Contradictions [NYT]