Albania went from "the poorest country in Europe and one of the least visited" to a beach-listicle staple in about five years, and most of what's written about it now is about the coast. Tirana gets three lines and a photo of a painted apartment block. These four do better: the communist-era bunkers and the House of Leaves, the Blloku district that ordinary Albanians weren't allowed to enter until 1991, the mountain roads north to Theth, and the politics that shape all of it.
Two of these writers live in Albania full-time and update from the ground, which matters in a country where the bus timetable, the road surface and the entry rules all change faster than the guidebooks.