Medjugorje and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

by Renee · Published May 30, 2025 · Updated May 31, 2025

So we made it. It was drizzling rain when we left Dubrovnik and our walk to the car was like the 1000 step hike in Huntingdon PA with three exceptions. We were carrying our luggage, it was raining and there were no rattle snakes.

We purposely stopped in Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. My childhood friend Stephanie brought it to my attention when she talked about a neighbor in Altoona that brought her holy water from the town. She had thought the miracle town was in Croatia. I asked my high school friend Nica about it since she recently visited the area then it all fell into place. Nica’s brother in law is a priest and travels to the town frequently. Nica had me read a book written by one of the teenagers (6 kids total) who saw the apparitions the Virgin Mary on the hill. It’s similar to Fatima and to Lourdes, all Mary apparitions.

We had to check it out on our way to Mostar. It is totally different than Fatima. The town is very old. There is a center outdoor altar and then the beautiful church of St. James. We went in just before a Mass started. We did not stay for it bc we wanted find the statue of Jesus that bleeds oil from his leg and walk up the hill.

Many ppl were in line for Jesus. N they had a stepping stool to reach Jesus’s leg. Many rubbed a lone time bringing tissues and napkins to rub the oil onto. Some put it all over their head, neck, hair.

Neither Paige nor I could feel the oil. I did use a tissue to rub on Jesus’s leg.

When we finished the line was about 50 ppl long.

We now decided that we were going to walk up the hill. We tried to find a but failed and we were very tired and very hangry.

We asked for directions and a shop owner said it was a short walk. We did not find it and just got hangrier. We turned back and grabbed a very small street food then walked back to the car. I stopped and got holy water and Paige got and ice cream.

We then drove up to the hill. Much to our surprise the hill was quite different than we imagined. This was the hill where the six kids saw Mary. It was covered with rocks or should I say boulders that reminded me of dragons tooth on day two of the Camino. And it was not a little hill. it was a huge hill. Five monuments plaques of Mary were situated about every 100 feet to represent each decade of the rosary. After we reached the fifth one they had a statue of Mary to the right, which is the actual site of where the kids saw Mary. A crucifix was to the left.

All ages and races trekked up. Some people were walking barefoot. We are very happy that we found the Hill and even happier that we hiked up. Nica urged me to read an autobiography from one of the teenagers who saw Mary in 1982. I am only about 20% into it. It also gives a great history of this area and the wars.

My Heart Will Triumph by MIRJANA SOLDO

We stopped at a souvenir stand called Italian souvenirs Rita so I had to stop.

Mostar was about 35 minutes away. We arrived way later than planned. We were lucky to have parking right in front of our hotel. No steps. No trek. Woo hoo. We had about 20 mins to check in, brush our teeth and head out by to the old town to meet our tour guide which I booked at 8 am same day.

It is hard to describe the beauty and feeling of Mostar. Immediately the multi ethnic vibe shines through. We heard the chanting from Muslim prayer piped in from one of the 30 mosques. We had to cross the river twice to get to our meeting place at and old Hamam museum. We actually got lost and crossed the historical Old Bridge by mistake so we got a sneak peak and take some photos.

We met Arnela who was a very knowledgeable historian and quite an interesting person. She would stop talking if someone walked through our group and wait and if they didn’t apologize she would be upset and go on about bad mannera. She had a head count and at one point we lost two people and she went back to find them. I think they were ditching and she was upset. It did go on and just before the two ppl left she said she was going to have to keep us longer bc of the interruptions lol. We started at 5 and ended at 745 pm. Yes we were exhausted and starving but oh did we learn a lot.

We started off with a history lesson of the country name and why to never called it Bosnia. It’s Bosnia Herzegovina or we can say B and H.

We wondered the old town which was basically destroyed in the war 1993-95 and all rebuilt by Unesco about 2000-2005. Check my dates.

We walked down to the river under the famed Old Bridge and leaned the history of the bridge demise and its resurrection. We watched the speedboat tours as she explained the crazy ppl who jump off of the bridge and the world diving competitions the end of August and the Red Bull diving competition in the summer. Also, anyone can take training lessons to jump and the have an instructional diving platform.

We then walked across the bridge, walked into a copper shop of 5 generations that began in 1918. Then we walked to a Mosque where we learned about the wars and particularly the last one. She was 14 and her father was taken to three of the concentration camps but he didn’t die.

We ended the tour at the cemetery across the street from a genecide museum. So the end of the tour was very sad with the detailed genocide history.

Arnela gave us fliers for a dinner place called the Food House. On the way we stopped at her favorite gelato stand (€1 per scoop. Croatia was €2.5) and we had the walnut fig and pomegranate, two favorites of hers that did not disappoint and quite a rival to Italy gelato.

Dinner had a free welcome grappa. We had hummus, pepper and tzatziki with homemade fresh pita. We each had a fresh salad and a grilled fresh river red trout with potatoes and Swiss chard. And a local dessert called Hurmasica. It was cookie like soaked in honey with crushed nuts. We loved every bite. The food cost is a third of the cost of Dubrovnik.

We had a good night sleep, a hotel breakfast prepared by Ariana, our 20 year old hotel host. She showed us how to make the famous Bosnian coffee and explained the difference between Bosnian and Turkish.

I would highly recommend that everyone should see Mostar at least once in a lifetime if possible.

The Old Town is a charming multi ethnic and multi religious town filled with many amazing restaurants and shops of copper Bosnian coffee pots, coffee cups and coffee bean grinders. If we had room to pack we would have purchased one. Homemade jewelry shops and Homemade linen shops also lined the streets.

We wish we had one more day to explore Mostar but we had a five hour drive back to Zagreb to return our car then a 5.5 hr train to Budapest. I have plans to sleep on the train.

PS our Mostar hotel’s WiFi didn’t reach our room so I could not post. I’ll post photos as soon as I get good WiFi.