How to time travel… on foot
I have a very specific destination wish list, should I ever get the chance to step into a time machine. I would visit the Crystal Palace during the 1851 Great Exhibition, and go and see the Ballets Russes perform in Paris in the 1920s.
But until that inventor turns up, I like to time travel on foot. It’s very easy to do, and just as magical. Here are six ways to get you started.
1. Learn about the history of a place
Look at old photographs and pore over historic maps. Read accounts of what life was like. If your family lived there, seek out photo albums and anecdotes. Then when you next walk around the site, street or town, let the layers of stories come to life, with the people, buildings and customs of a previous time.
2. Revisit somewhere you haven’t been for a while
Pick a city or a specific place where you have memories. It could be as simple as a café or museum in your own city that you haven’t visited for some time, or you could recreate a holiday to another part of the world. Reconnect with your memories and who you were, and reflect on what has changed in the intervening years.
3. Remember how you viewed a place the first time you saw it
Pick a place that is now familiar but that you remember visiting for the first time. Perhaps you didn’t have a full sense of where it was located, or were struck by a particular feature. Or perhaps it was a special occasion. Go to that place and try to see it through those eyes again.
4. Listen to music you used to love as you walk
Take yourself back to a previous version of yourself, your life, and the place you are walking in, by selecting some old favourite tunes and listening to them as you walk. Let the memories flood back…
5. Try on a scent you used to wear
Pop by a perfume counter and find the tester for a scent you used to wear. Spray it on and go about your day, accompanied by the ghostly smell of a previous version of you. Be open to how it makes you experience places differently.
6. Imagine how a place might look in 100 years
Let your imagination do the work by predicting what a place might look like a hundred years from now: buildings, green spaces, transport, people… draw a full picture, literally or figuratively, of what the world could become.
Time travel adventure complete? Why not record your impressions in a time travel journal…
