Republic of Albania, Republika e Shqipërisë. 3,154,000. National or official language: Tosk Albanian. Literacy rate: 85%. Blind population: 2,000. Deaf population: 204,565 (1998). The number of individual languages listed for Albania is 7. Of those, all are living languages.
For a long time, roughly half-a-century, celebrating a religious festivity was a pure act of rebellion in Albania. Former dictator Enver Hoxha in his attempt to create the homo-sovieticus had banned anything from Christmas to Carnivals. Any challenge to the rule and you could be drop-shipped to the gulags as priority mail.
With its coastline facing the Adriatic and Ionian seas, its highlands backed upon the elevated Balkan landmass, and the entire country lying at a latitude subject to a variety of weather patterns during the winter and summer seasons, Albania has a high number of climatic regions for so small an area.