Tirana is the capital and largest city of Albania and as well the heart of Albania's cultural, economic and governmental activity. According to official estimates, there are about 420 thousand inhabitants in Tirana. Established in 1614 Tirane became the capital of Albania in 1920.

Tirana was founded in 1614 by Ottoman general Sulejman Pasha, who built a mosque, a bakery and a Turkish bath. He named the city Tehran, in honor of his military victory at Tehran in Persia (now Iran). However, there are early means of a castle in Dajti mountain, named Tirkan, in the sixth century, in the writings of a Byzantine historian.

The small town was chosen for the temporary capital of Albania (as a compromise between the South and North Albania) by the provisional government in January 1920. In November 1944, the communist government of Enver Hoxha was established in Tirana after the liberation from German occupation.

The urban population, which was estimated to be only 12 thousand in 1910 increased to 30 thousand in 1930 and even 60 thousand in 1945. despite years of foreign occupation and war. During the 1950s, Albania has experienced a period of exceptional industrial growth, with an increase in population to 137 thousand in 1960. In the late 1990s, Tirana experienced the fastest population influx, because Albanians from the north of the country in large numbers migrated to the capital in the hope of a better life.

In 2004, Edi Rama, the mayor of Tirana, won the award for the best mayor of the world. Many agree that this contributed to his vision of Tirana as a clear project to change the city's facade, to one's taste perhaps even gaudy and clashing colors, but apparently well received by foreign media and the inhabitants of the Albanian capital city.

The reason of these drastic changes were drab which prevailed in Tirana until Rama's arrival, because the city during Enver Hoxha was extremely rusty, and all the buildings in the city have lost their facades, which has affected the general mood in the city.

Despite problems Tirana has a visible progress. The construction of the first real tourist attraction, as one of the longest cable car in Europe, which it can reach the second highest peak in the vicinity of Tirana, started. The cable car was made but there is still a shortage of quality supporting facilities. Another attraction is the rotating restaurant on top of the highest building. Unfortunately, potential and existing attractions still not valorized.

Please note that we received reports regarding travelers being scammed by local hustlers on Tirana bus station. All bus lines from BusTicket4.me are official and without any possibility of passenger fraud.

Pristina, also spelled Prishtina or Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the homonymous municipality and district.

The city has a majority Albanian population, alongside other smaller communities. With a population of about 500,000, Pristina is the second-largest Albanian-speaking city in the world.  Geographically, it is located in the north-eastern part of Kosovo close to the Goljak mountains. The city is situated some 250 kilometres north-east of Tirana, 90 kilometres north of Skopje, 520 kilometres south of Belgrade and 300 kilometres east of Podgorica.

During the Paleolithic Age, what is now the area of Pristina was envolved by the Vinča culture. Pristina was home to several Illyrian and Roman people at the classical times. The king of the Dardanian Kingdom, Bardyllis brought various tribes together in the area of Pristina in the 4th century BC, establishing the Dardanian Kingdom. The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient city of Ulpiana, that was considered one of the most important Roman cities in the Balkan peninsula. In the middle ages, Pristina was an important town in Medieval Serbia and also the royal estate of Stefan Milutin, Stefan Uros III, Stefan Dusan, Stefan Uros V and Vuk Brankovic.

When the Ottomans conquered the Balkan peninsula, Pristina was classified as an important mining and trading center on the market, due to its strategic position near the rich mining town of Novo Brdo. The city was known for its trade fairs and items, such as goatskin and goat hair, as well as gunpowder produced by artisans from Pristina in 1485. The first mosque in Pristina was built in the late 14th century, while under the Serbian rule. Pristina has always been considered as a city where tolerance and coexistence in terms of religion and culture has been part of the society in the last centuries.

Being the capital city, Pristina is considered as the heart of Kosovo because of its central location and its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education, service, research and healthcare. Almost all domestic and foreign companies, media and scientific institutions have their headquarters in the city.

The name of the city is derived from a Slavic form *Prišьčь, a possessive adjective from the personal name *Prišьkъ, (preserved in the Kajkavian surname Prišek, in the Old Polish personal name Parzyszek, and in the Polish surname Pryszczyk) and the derivational suffix -ina 'belonging to X and his kin'.[citation needed] The name is most likely a patronymic of the personal name *Prišь, preserved as a surname in Sorbian Priš, and Polish Przybysz, a hypocoristic of the Slavic personal name Pribyslavъ.

A false etymology[citation needed] connects the name Priština with the Serbian word prišt (пришт), meaning 'ulcer' or 'tumour', referring to its 'boiling'. However, this explanation cannot be correct, as Slavic place names ending in -ina corresponding either or both to an adjective or the name of an inhabitant lacking this suffix are built from personal names or denote a person and never derive, in these conditions, from common nouns (SNOJ 2007: loc. cit.). The inhabitants of this city call themselves Prishtinali in local Gheg Albanian or Prištevci (Приштевци) in the local Serbian dialect.

Pristina is the primary tourist destination in Kosovo as well as the main air gateway to the country.[58] It is known as a university center of students from neighbouring countries as Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. In 2012, Tourism in Pristina attracted 36,186 foreign visitors.[59] which represents 74.2%[60] Most foreign tourists come from Albania, Turkey, Germany, United States, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, with the number of visitors from elsewhere growing every year.[61]

The city has a large number of luxury hotels, modern restaurants, bars, pubs and very large nightclubs. Coffee bars are a representative icon of Pristina and they can be found almost everywhere. The largest hotels of the city are the Swiss Diamond and the Grand Hotel Prishtina situated in the heart of the city. Other major hotels present in Pristina include the Emerald Hotel, Sirius Hotel and Hotel Garden.

Some of the most visited sights near the city include the Batlava Lake and Marble Cave, which are also among the most visited places in country.[62] Pristina has played a very important role during the World War II, being a shelter for Jews, whose cemeteries now can be visited.

As the capital city of the Republic of Kosovo, it is the center of cultural and artistic development of all Albanians that lives in Kosovo. The Department of cultural affairs is just one of the segments that arranges the cultural events, which make Pristina one of the cities with the most emphasized cultural and artistic traditions. Pristina is home to the largest cultural institutions of the country, such as the National Theatre of Kosovo, National Archaeology, Ethnography and Natural science Museum, National Art Gallery and the Ethnological Museum. Among the local institutions are the National Library of Kosovo which has more than 1.8 million books, periodicals, maps, atlases, microfilms and other library materials.

There are many foreign cultural institutions in Pristina, including the Albanian Albanological Institute, the German Goethe-Institut and Friedrich Ebert Foundation.[ Other cultural centers in Pristina are, the French Alliance Française and the British Council. The Information Office of the Council of Europe was also established in Pristina.