Hotel Villa Regina Medjugorje

Today turned into a sunny day after all. Yesterday rain all day. When it rains here it's pretty sloppy. There are some paved roads, but they are very uneven and have huge puddles. The path that we walk to town is dirt and that turns into mud. This morning Marjiana spoke to us about her life has a child when she started having appriations. It was under communist rule so she was basically kicked out of Medjugorje and forced to go back to Sarevejo ...

... The coffin had been on display, but was now closed. Our tour guide said that his body was only slightly touched up, but otherwise in tact meaning not decayed. To me that's amazing. We finally have some down time for the next 5 days. I just want to walk around and admire this beautiful place. Hard to believe I;m finally here, Miss you all. No word of any H1N1 here, Will write more later.

... and Bosnia several times.<br><br>With the first signs of Mostar we thought to ourselves "what the hell are we doing here". You can still see the impact the war has left here, it truly is in your face. Shells of buildings still cordoned off. Nearly all the building along the route the bus took in were heavily scared from shrapnel and bullets. We thought the war was 15 years ago, it looks like yesterday. <br>Mostar suffered greatly during the inter-ethnic wars from 1992 ...

Wednesday morning, we visited Sister Janja (pronounced YAN ya). We had mass at her small chapel in her convent. She spoke a little about the broken crucifix on the wall. Although the communists broke it, she and her nuns take the symbolism that we all break Christ. Sister Janja is one ...

... member of our group on the way. After dinner, I walked the mile or to St. Francis while several others went to admire our host's wine cellar, got the statue, picked up one other thing on the way home, and got back on time for the blessing of all religious articles. I am now packed and ready for tomorrow night's post-midnight (that would be Thursday morning, technically) departure for the Dubrovnik airport. Pictures will be posted when I get home.

... good temps, and interesting activities. But being cold for a week is not attractive and the problem is not outside; it's inside. Heat is optional in hotels here, like showers in France. 10C-50F is tolerable, especially if that's the LOW temp, but not comfortable. They probably figure THEY don't use heaters, so why should the guests? Get a clue- guests don't have kitchens. Almost any heat source would help, but a TV is not enough ...

After taking a short break the weekend after Italy camping in the mountains around Gaming, I got back out into the world, this time on a pilgrimage to a very popular Marian apparition site in Bosnia.  It is here that Mary began appearing some twenty years ago to six children, all of whom are alive today and still having visions and relaying messages to humanity.  Unlike Lourdes or Fatima, it is not yet confirmed by the church, only because the visions must cease ...

... to climb up a hill to one of the residential areas to see if I would find anything interesting up there. I found more destroyed buildings. One in particluar stood out. You could see the bottom parts of each wall it used to have. The only part that was fully intact was the doorway which people could still walk through if they wanted to. From this building, you could aslo get a great view of all of Mostar. I then walked down the hill ...

... in that they have been slower to rebuild from the war that ended 13 years ago. You are still able to witness many of the bombed out buildings while walking around the city --- many of which have signs warning you of the dangerous ruins. I have visited many 'ruins' in my travels, but I have never considered buildings that were bombed out from such a recent war ...

... a carafe of the house red wine (very big), and the laughter in the restaurant increased, except now most of it was coming from our table. The music was good and the atmosphere friendly. Sadly, just as we were ready to enjoy a tasty treat for dessert the waiter informed us that they didn't have anything for dessert. Oh well, we probably didn't need it anyway. We went to sleep with the soothing sounds of the water surrounding us.