Mostar - Medjugorje - Kravice - Pocitelj - Blagaj - Mostar

After speaking to our professor friend the day before he suggested a loop of the local area that would take in a few towns and show us some of the highlights of the region so off we went.

Medjugorje - that's a statue not an apparition.

In 1981 some children in the town of Medjugorje, probably because they were late home for dinner, reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary up a hill on the outskirts of town.  

In a severe case of a story spiralling waaaaay out of control Medjugorje has become one of the largest Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world.

Of course it's not my go but seeing as it was only 25kms from Mostar, and to me at least, just like visiting a big church we decided to have a look.  
Of course I'm a paid up member of the Australian Skeptics so rather than letting me sway your opinion here's what the Catholic church itself has to say about the matter.  

The phenomenon is not officially approved by the Catholic Church.  Bishop Ratko Perić of the diocese of Mostar-Duvno, responsible for Medjugorje, has stated, "The numerous absurd messages, lies, falsehoods and disobedience associated from the beginning with the events and "apparitions" of Medjugorje, all refute every claim of authenticity."

Fr. Tomislav Vlasic, one of the main publicizers of the apparitions, was defrocked by Pope Benedict XVI in July 2009. He had been accused of sexual misconduct, "dubious doctrine, the manipulation of consciences, suspect mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders".  (source: wikipedia.)

The first thing that is apparent when you drive into Medjugorje is that "visions" of the Virgin Mary do wonders for the local economy.  

Where there are only tiny villages dotting the countryside with not much happening Medjugorje is bursting at the seams which busloads of tourists (Italians mainly), hundreds of souvenir shops, hotels, supermarkets and restaurants. 

Kravice Waterfall

To help keep our strength up in case of a "vision" we stopped at a local cafe and ordered some crepes.   After a 45 minute wait we were wondering if the bloke cooking them was waiting for the Virgin Mary herself to bless them before they were allowed to come out.

Kravice.

Parked the car near Apparition Hill and decided to walk up and see what all the fuss is about.  

Walked past about 100 souvenir shops spruiking every imaginable object with the Virgin Mary on it and started up the hill.

Basically it's a hill with a track on it.  (With people singing hymns, saying prayers and some walking barefoot.  What's that all about?)

Kravice - Harry & Ryan.

Not being so privileged to be granted an appearance by VM we went back down and drove to Kravice waterall which was about 10kms away.  

A beautiful waterfall that we'd never heard of until we got to Mostar and well worth the time to visit.  There was a small canoe there so we hired that and paddled out to the waterfall which the kids loved. 

Protlelj.

Jumped in the car and drove to a small old town called Pocitelj that was a small Turkish town from the 14th century which is now a UNESCO site.  

Tried in vain to find a restaurant serving food but unfortunately just because a building has 'restoran' on it with pictures of food at the front doesn't means it will have any food.  

As our 'need food RIGHT NOW' child Ryan said 'what sort of person would put food on a picture at the front of a restaurant when they don't even serve it?'  Fair question.

Dracevice - 5 vs 5.

Drove on after that to a town called Blagaj where we intended to have dinner but as we came through a small village called Dracevice on the way we saw a soccer field with about 4 young lads sitting about.  

Pulled the car over and Harry jumped out with the ball to see if they wanted to play.  The next thing you know about 12 kids came out of the woodwork and we played a little winner-stays-on 5 vs 5 competition.

Dinner after that at Blagaj by the river which was very good.

Stray observations:  Soccer, it really is the world game.