Albania is situated in south-east Europe, it is the smallest state of the Balkan peninsula (measuring 28,748 kmq) with confines on the north – east with Serbia and Montenegro, on the east with Macedonia, on the south with Greece and on the west with the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.

The capital is Tirana, situated in the centre of the country. Albania is the “YOUNGEST STATE” in Europe, as 30% of its inhabitants have an average age between 0 and 14 years old.

The Albanian climate is Mediterranean, characterised by hot summers and mild winters. The period from June to September is hot while from October to May, it is cool and wet.

After the communist dictatorship, which placed the country in a perpetual condition of isolation from the rest of the world, the first programmes of liberalisation began and in 1992 the first free elections took place. Now Albania is a democratic parliamentary Republic and in 1998 the country adopted a Constitution.  The growth perspectives, which are of 7-8%, make Albania one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.

Albanian cuisine is influenced by the Italian, Turkish and French culinary traditions, and many dishes are based on mutton, like the kebab, and fish such as the Lake Shkodra carp and lake Ohrid trout. Each region has its specialities such as Fergese Tirane, a hot dish of meat, peppers, egg and tomatoes made in Tirana and Hoshaf, a dessert made of junket and figs, originating in the Girokastra area. The red wine called Shesi e Zi is particularly good, a variety of liquors and also Raki, a sort of brandy distilled from grapes, which is taken as an aperitif.

Mother Tere

sa of Calcutta, was born in Skopje on August 27, 1910.  At the age of eighteen, she joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with a mission in Calcutta and in India, in 1928, she took her initial vows as a nun. Although she had no funds, she started an open-air school for homeless children.  In 1950 she started her own order “The Missionaries of Charity” whose primary task was to love and care for those people nobody was prepared to look after. In 1971 she received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, in 1972 the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and in 1979 the Nobel Prize for Peace.