Sam and Sheena Cycle

Chances are, unless you are Catholic then you will never have heard of this place, I hadn’t until stumbling upon a short mention of it in a guidebook. As soon as I started to say the name, Sheena was able to finish it off for me, as for her, and many other Irish people it is very famous.

First off, if you are Catholic then you should probably look away… I don’t wish to offend anyone, but I must admit my views of this particular sacred location are critical to say the least…

Oh my fucking god, Jesus Christ, I honest don’t think I have ever been to a worse place… SERIOUSLY, what the hell is this town about?? Although I firmly believe in science and reason, I’m not completely blind to the idea that religion can offer guidance and a level of comfort in certain places in the world. I understand the reasons for it, I can understand the benefits of it, but blatantly plagerised from some unremembered comedian or internet source, I also believe that religion is like a penis, sure be proud of it but no need to wave it in peoples faces.

There are two places that I have been to that I really despise for their rampant opulence based on pure exploitation; Dubai and Las Vegas. People go there and have a good time blind to the fact it is built on a lot of hidden people doing a lot of shitty things for fuck all.

Medjugorge is pure exploitation, its rancid, but this time not for the people who are working there, judging by the cars driving around people are doing very well for themselves. Ok, sorry…. From looking at our blog statistics most of you are not Irish – you still have no idea what this is about.

In 1981, while walking on a small hill next to an almost non existent dirt poor Bosnian village, six children saw a vision of the virgin Mary… luckily they were Catholic and not some of the many Muslim children living in the area so they recognised her. Somehow they were not told to get back to school/work, and the site was considered sacred and is now a fairly large place almost completely full of huge hotels and shops selling absolutely every tacky item possible with pictures of Mary on them. There is a huge church with an absolutely massive outside seating area, nasty concrete statues of Mary and did I mention the many many shops selling tacky shining Mary’s or Mother Terresa’s. Old and sick people from all over the Catholic world come here and pay way over the odds for accommodation and food, in return they get to be near a site where apparently Mary showed up… only the Vatican of course have not given it the green light yet – probably waiting for those children to kick the bucket so they don’t suddenly turn around and say ‘haha, just pulling your leg’.

There are two Irish centres, Paddy travel, Irish hotels, every restaurant is Italian and a few Irish pubs. It is absolutely nuts.

We intended to just see it for the shits and giggles, but due to a huge thunderstorm than blew down trees as we were waiting to leave Mostar we were there for the night. We agreed a price in an empty hotel less than 100 meters from the main gaudy tacky church in the middle of this mess. We spent the night there and it was horrible, everything was overpriced in town and as I lay in bed the awful religious icons surrounding burnt marks on my sin filled existence. With day break I was happy to be leaving, despite knowing I would have to run the gauntlet of tens of tour busses, complete with large pictures of the virgin Mary plastered all over them and the new daily influx of pilgrims. Well leaving was not so easy, despite the ‘sacred’ nature of this town, and unknown to me, the hotel owner had doubled the price with Sheena. Despite clearly stating the cost for the room the previous night he was claiming it was per person, put on the spot and feeling threatened Sheena paid the rest of the money we had on us, not covering the full amount but almost. To cut a long story short we had an argument with the owner, we had pathetic pleading, we were not getting our money back and short of getting ourselves into further trouble I settled for taking keys off the rack for a selection of rooms and putting them down the drain in front of the hotel. I guess lies and deceit are perhaps one of the most accurate Christian experiences you can have.

If God created the world, then go and see something that he created well. If God created the world then sit at the Tara Canyon and marvel at how fucking beautiful the natural world is, look at the stars, look at how each individual person around the world is unique and fascinating. Whatever you do, don’t do to Medjurgorje – it’s a shit hole based on the biggest pile of bullshit imaginable and no one there gives a fuck how religious you are, they just want your money.

Clearly this is just a personal opinion. Sam