Sarajevo

Sarajevo lies at the bottom of a narrow valley, with mountains rising straight off the rooftops. The East gives way to Europe in the space of a single street: on one side the coppersmiths' stalls and low houses of Baščaršija, the wooden fountain of the Sebilj and the minaret of the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque; on the other, ochre facades and cafés from the Austrian years. Coffee arrives in a small copper pot with a cube of Turkish delight, and cevapi come off the grill by the dozen, tucked into warm flatbread. The city hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, and the runs at Jahorina and Bjelašnica are still there, less than an hour away. From the Yellow Fortress at sunset, the call to prayer rises out of the whole valley at once. The siege of the 1990s left its marks, and the War Childhood Museum tells that story without flinching.