Medugorje/Croatia

Hallo everyone! So I know that this is a bit late but here is the post on the Medugorje trip which was actually 2 weekends ago now. This past weekend we were in Vienna on friday and rafting on saturday, but I'm sure Alden will fill you in on all of that in a different post and we are going to try to get pictures form the trip from Mark. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of Medugorje and Croatia cause there are quite a few of them!

We started our trip thursday night and drove through the night, it was a long night and the beginning of a tired weekend. Friday morning we arrived in Medugorje and checked into our hotel. Then we walked down to the parish church for a 10am English mass. Allready we were beginning to experience the holiness of this little village as we gathered with hundreds of pilgrims to celebrate mass. After mass we went into a few shops, there were tons of souvenir shops everywhere, we were trying to guess how many rosaries are in the entire town of Medugurje... we met back at our hotel and a guide took us towards Apparition Hill. We prayed the sorrowful mysteries and between decades our guide would share information and history about the town. It was a very prayerful and peaceful atmosphere. We climbed Apparition Hill barefoot as the children did 26 years ago when the apparitions began. As we climbed we prayed the joyful mysteries. When we reached the top, there was more silence and reflective prayer before we hiked down. Alden and I got a little lost on the way back, of course, got back to the hotel and crash napped for about an hour before dinner. We ended the night with some more shoping and jellato icecream. :) Saturday morning was spent in the monastery with Fr. Jozo, he was a very profound and inspirational speaker and prayed over each of us. We also celebrated mass in the monastery where the franciscan monks were martyred which was very powerful. Especially when we climbed down into the cave where their bodies were burned. After this we got back on the bus for Medugorje, grabbed a quick lunch, and headed out for Cross Mountain. We climbed the mountain while praying the stations of the cross, many of the other pilgrims seemed to be very moved by our young group and one even asked us to sing a song for them. At the top of the mountain the view was incredible! We knelt at the cross, which actually has a piece of the True Cross built inside of it. After about a half hour or so we headed back down and then back to the hotel for dinner again. After dinner we went to adoration for about an hour which was also beautiful. Sunday morning we said goodbye to Medugorje and got back on our dear bus. We drove a couple hours into Croatia. I had fallen asleep and woke up to everyone gasping, oohing and aahing. We looked at our window and met quite the sight! Spread out before us, thousands of feet below, was the Adriatic Sea. Mountains towered all around us and our road winded around the side of the mountains above the sea. It was probably one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life! The water was crystal, clear blue, all I wanted to do was go swimming in it! We had mass at a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes, moseyed around there for a little and gazed up at the mountains. Then we took off for Split, where we spent the remainder of the day exploring the old streets and castle, watching the boats come in, and checking out the tons of shops. It was the most perfect and relaxing way to end the weekend and we were sorry to leave. We got back on our bus for the last stretch, drove through the night again. I got sooooo sick that night I don't think I slept a wink, needing to get up every hour or so to go to the bathroom, what a drag. When we got back to Gaming about 4:45 in the morning we crashed for a few hours and spent the rest of the day watching a movie and taking it easy. It took a while to recuperate from the trip! But it was definitely worth every minute and I'm sure the experience will last throughout our lifetime.

That's about it now. We're in the middle of midterms this week and then off to Venice and Greece for our 10-day break on thursday so don't expect anything new for quite some time. We'll have tons of pictures when we get back and like I said, we'll try to get the rafting pictures up as soon as we get ahold of them.

Miss everyone and hope all is well back home!
Until next time!

-catherine*