The Town of a Thousand Stairs

Well, there seems to have been a slight delay. We have internet, and everything is working fine, except for my memory. Whoooops. Anyway, today's blog is about Positano, so I hope you enjoy it despite the lateness.

Positano is one of the world's most unlikely cities. It is built on practically a sheer cliff face, with the only entrance being an incredibly unsafe-looking road on another sheer cliff face. Of course, this also means that the city has its fair share of stairs- as my dad said "The mailmen are probably the most muscular guys in town." (not exact words.)

You may be wondering why we would go to such an exhausting and frightening place, and the answer is kayaking.

We kayaked out in the open sea, with a beautiful view of Positano as we left.

The rock here is volcanic, so each of the layers you see here was formed by an eruption. The cliff face was easily a thousand feet tall, so that means... carry the seven... a whole lot of eruptions happened here.

The guide challenged us to navigate this narrow passageway without touching the sides.

The whole area was ridiculously beautiful.

After that exciting excursion, we returned to the city for the return trip and were greeted with: stairs. Four hundred stairs, to be precise- and that only took us halfway up. And so, we started our trek.

We rounded a corner and discovered even more stairs, so we pressed on.

Around the next corner, a surprise awaited us. Just kidding, more stairs.

Finally, we took the ultimate corner, and were greeted with a magnificent sight...

...Actually, more stairs.

I give up.

Despite all that, we did eventually manage to make it to the top, finding a nice café as a reward.

Notice the lemons on the table. This area of Italy is famous for its lemons, and even grows giant lemons, some as big as cantaloupes.

Thanks for reading!

Aidan's Greek Myths

Episode 2: Kronos

The Titans did not, in fact, disappoint Uranus. They were smart, strong, and massive in size, and for a while there was peace in the world. However, Gaea still resented Uranus for casting her other children into Tartarus, and so she called the strongest Titan, Kronos, and gave him a powerful sickle capable of destroying even the most powerful beings. Kronos, upon Gaea's advice, proceeded to challenge his father for control of the universe. He won, cutting his father into pieces with his ultimate weapon, and assumed control of all.

Kronos, however, was not a better ruler than Uranus. He had had a vision that told him he would one day be overthrown by one of his own children, so every time his sister and wife Rhea gave birth, he swallowed the child alive. Similarly to Gaea, Rhea grew tired of her husband's actions, and so when the last child was born, she hid him away. She gave Kronos a rock wrapped in baby clothes to disguise her plan. He fell for the trick and swallowed it, and the last child- Zeus- was free.