Saturday, November 09, 2024

Which country best represents the feeling of time travel?

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I’ve only been to 80 of the world’s 195 countries, so I certainly haven’t been everywhere. But I can give you our personal opinion on the countries that gave us the feeling of traveling through time, either forward or backward. This is merely opinion, so there is no need to disagree with someone’s personal experiences. A better option is to write your own post.

A country where we felt like we traveled to the past

(The skyline of Valetta, Malta)

Visiting Malta felt like a venture back into medieval times if not earlier, and it became one of our favorite countries in the world. The city of Valetta has walls dating to the 1560s, constructed just after the conclusion of the Middle Ages. Many structures still standing were built in the 16th century. But numerous ruins remain from BC times, and the Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni discovered in 1902 predates Egypt’s most famous pyramids by about 500 years!

A country where we felt like we traveled to the future

(Shanghai, China)

The Japanese and Koreans tend to lead the planet in advanced technology. But a visit to China’s major cities provided a unique experience of futuristic architecture, half of the world’s 20 tallest buildings, far more electric vehicles than any other nation, and the fastest high-speed trains in the world. There’s a reason Shanghai is often referred to as the city of the future.

A country that once felt like traveling back in time (but things have changed now)

(U.S.S.R. in the 1970s)

When we moved to Bangalore, India, in the 1980s, traveling from the United States to India felt like going back in time 20 years. India was incredibly primitive compared to the U.S. back then. But we experienced an even more extreme case than that. When we moved from the U.S. to the U.S.S.R. in the 1970s, my parents said it felt like teleporting back to the 1930s or ’40s. The Soviet Union was very underdeveloped under the thumb of communism, and it was an incredibly memorable experience! 

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