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 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. , 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 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 . 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

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