I visited a really strange place: the world headquarters of the Bektashi. These folks practice an unusual form of Islam: formally it's considered Sufism, but you can drink alcohol, you need communion, confession, and to baptize children.

In Tirana they have an official headquarters. You can enter, but they clearly don't expect random visitors. The territory is surrounded by a huge fence, partially with barbed wire. A security guard sits at the entrance and speaks only Albanian. I managed to explain with gestures that I just wanted to look around. He was fine with that and let me through.

The compound is enormous, and judging by the buildings, the religious movement is pretty well-funded. While I was wandering around the temple, the guard apparently decided not to leave me unsupervised and came over asking to see my passport. When he saw my Russian document, he suddenly started wondering if I was from Macedonia. A very logical question. After hearing "no," he asked me not to take photos with a camera—which I didn't have anyway. But he was fine with me using my phone.

I have no idea how they expect to recruit new followers this way :(