Our Man in Tirana

Greetings from wet and cold Belfast. With flights on British Airway's new London-Tirana route having begun, the British newspapers are featuring Tirana in their travel sections. The Times , The Independent and The Observer have covered the city in recent editions. Whether this will translate into a rush of adventurous travellers remains to be seen, though the Daily Telegraph did report that BA are claiming that there is 'considerable demand' for the flights. We will be sampling BA's service for ourselves when we return to Tirana in a little while, when normal blog service will be resumed.

I watched the Champions League quarter finals on the big screen at the Sheraton. As expected, most of the crowd were cheering for Milan in their games against Lyon. Unexpectedly, most of the crowd were cheering for Arsenal against Juventus. Why is this so? Are Albanians particularly hostile to Juventus? Or are they particularly fond of Arsenal? Is the English Premiership more popular than Serie A? Or - my best guess - was I in a room full of Milan supporters? Meanwhile, it has been some time since I updated you on the coaching situation at Dinamo. Ivan Katalinić had been in charge last time I commented, but he was sacked after the team lost to Partizan and was replaced by non-other than Luka Bonačić. This was the man who resigned earlier in the season saying 'The team has no discipline. There is no work ethic in this team and in Albanian football as well. Without that it is impossible to work and in such work conditions there is no chance to achieve your objectives.' When re-a...

There are more photographs from the park on my Flickr page.

One of the advantages of living in a country of many religions is the preponderance of public holidays. This week we had the Bektashis to thank for a holiday on March 22 - the festival of Nevrus. I have to confess that I knew nothing about the Bektashi community before I came here and my knowledge remains sketchy. Tracing their origins to the 13th century Islamic teacher Haji Bektash Veliu the Bektashi order is part of the Sufi tradition. Sufism is generally described as a more mystical Islamic tradition. The Bektashis are usually described as practising a more liberal (or more heterodox - depending on your point of view) kind of Islam. Their traditions were influenced by local folk religions and Christianity. Centred in what is now Turkey, they were expelled from that country by Kemal Ataturk in 1925 and established their world headquarters in Tirana. I have read some claims that the influence of Bektashi Islam is one of the reasons for the relative religious harmony in Albania. Their...