A land between poverty and progress

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Mercedes are everywhere - here in the capital Tirana and elsewhere across the country swissinfo.ch

Saranda in the south: piles of rubbish and recently built blocks of flats as far as the eye can see swissinfo.ch

Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, plums and cherries: a farmers' market in Lushnja in central Albania swissinfo.ch

Gjirokastro, one of the country's three UNESCO World Heritage Sites swissinfo.ch

Tirana: begging on the street - in any weather swissinfo.ch

The building boom in Saranda, the country's tourist centre swissinfo.ch

Përmet in southern Albania: donkeys and mules remain the usual way of getting around in the countryside swissinfo.ch

In a minibus, a so-called fourgon, you can get almost everywhere swissinfo.ch

An improvised - and functional - bridge outside Përmet swissinfo.ch

These ruins outside Saranda offer shade on a hot day swissinfo.ch

Collecting rubbish by Lake Ohrid, on the border with Macedonia swissinfo.ch

Sit on this for a long time and you'll feel it: rustic park benches in Përmet swissinfo.ch

Satisfied with the catch: fishermen near Pogradec on Lake Ohrid swissinfo.ch

Back to the stall in rural southeast Albania swissinfo.ch

The market in the southeast Albanian town of Korça offers almost everything, from shoes and clothes to cosmetics, food and old TVs, bikes and CDs. swissinfo.ch

Bikes for hire in the middle of Tirana swissinfo.ch

The station in Tirana has only two platforms - enough for Albania's hardly overloaded rail network swissinfo.ch

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For a long time Albania was a blank spot and isolated from the rest of the world. Today, the country is heading towards Europe – albeit at a slow pace. Poverty, unemployment and structural shortcomings remain, but so do beautiful stretches of land, untouched nature and hope.

(Text and photos: Gaby Ochsenbein)