Travel Extra

TODAY’S SUBSCRIBER BONUS Tuesday, September 9, 2014 TRAVEL EXTRA A NEW BONUS SECTION FOR OUR SUBSCRIBERS Someone once said, “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves.” Indeed, our travels have shaped our lives. Which is why, today, we’re introducing our weekly Travel Extra digital section. Each Tuesday, as a bonus to our subscribers, Travel Extra section will take you on a tour of some well-known destinations — and document some offbeat journeys. So make the most of your subscription — and enjoy Travel Extra. f you dare to visit here — and I’m glad I did — you’ll eventually stand beneath the elegant geometry of Gazi Husrev-bey Mosque (built in 1530) or sip a beer at the Sarajevo Brewery (founded 1864) or tiptoe atop the stone walls of the White Fortress, I staring out at a 300-degree panorama of mountain slopes, red-tiled roofs, soaring minarets and far too many cemeteries. But first, you’ll probably go where I went WHERE TO STAY first: a short, low-slung bridge that doesn’t Hotel Central Sarajevo, 8 look a bit special. Cumurija St.; 561-800, www. That’s the Latin Bridge (also seen below). And on June 28, 1914, it lay along the route hotelcentral.ba. Rooms for of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Archduke two typically $165, breakfast Franz Ferdinand, who was visiting with his and tax included. wife, Sophie, the duchess of Hohenberg. Hotel Europe, 5 Vladislava As they well knew, Sarajevo has been a cul- Skarica; 580-400, www. tural crossroads since the 16th century, its hoteleurope.ba. Upscale mosques and synagogues neighbored by Or- rooms with a Vienna-style thodox and Catholic churches — the Jerusalem coffeehouse downstairs. of Europe, some said. But the Balkans were Rooms for two typically never particularly peaceful, and on that day in $180, breakfast and tax 1914, the region was ripe for trouble. included. The royal couple had already survived a Colors Inn, 8 Kosevo; botched bombing attempt that morning. And 276-600, www. then, as their open car idled near the bridge, hotelcolorsinnsarajevo. outside the Moritz Schiller delicatessen, a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip com. Contemporary look, stepped up with a pistol and shot them dead. Cajdzinica Dzirlo, a teahouse on the edge of 15-minute walk from Old His idea was to help neighboring Serbia gain Sarajevo’s Old Town, draws many international Town. Doubles usually $165 territory. Instead, as is told in the museum travelers with its Bosnian coffee and other regional midweek. where Schiller’s stood, he started World War I. specialties. Despite the Bosnian capital’s unsteady I reached Sarajevo in April, nearly 100 years past, international tourist arrivals have tripled since after the assassination and just 22 years after 2004. CHRIS REYNOLDS / LOS ANGELES TIMES / MCT TO LEARN MORE Bosnian Serb troops seized the high ground that surrounds the city and started shooting. Sarajevo Navigator, www. They killed about 11,000 people in 44 months, sarajevo.travel/en the longest siege in Europe since World War II. Guide Amir Telibechirowich, But many endured, much has been rebuilt and 61-304-966, visitors get a hearty welcome. [email protected]. Bosnia continued on SA4 MORE INSIDE Omaha Explore revives the Philly old that districts Benjamin to add Franklin to allure knew, of Old Page 2 Market, Page 3.

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