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There is an old saying, "Time waits for no one".

While the phrase is rather elementary sounding, its meaning is actually quite profound. The phrase is essentially saying that the presence of Time, is constant and impervious to any human effort to reverse it or transform it.

However, when traveling to a historic destination-(whether within the United States or outside the United States), can one's perception of time change and slow down when surrounded by and walking near historic buildings, homes, Houses of Worship, streets and roads? In other words, while the reality of time continues to tick and move uninterruptedly, is there also, paradoxically and perceptually, a slowing down of time when actually seeing the historical in person?

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You can even go back in time when visiting historic places! You can experience how people back then felt themselves, more or less. Depending on your mood time can go faster or slower. Time can even stop or stop to exist. When sitting on a hot stove it can seem to last forever (if ton the historic site a stove is at hand). Time can stop, it can be money, it can fly by and at the same time wait for nobody. It can even be on your side. It can have teeth and it can have hands. Time can go fast if you are having fun or don't exist if you you are in love. It can be transcended. There can be a first time and there can be a last. You can save it. You can have to much of it or too little. You can even fight it.

So it depends. If you like historic places you can find yourself back in time. If the site is built in a perfect way and you cannot see any difference with how it really was (including actors) you can say that you truly traveled back in time. The same holds for memories. While experiencing them you can time travel to yesterday. When I walked through the remnants of Pompei I felt sent back in time indeed. I'm not sure how I would have felt time if I longed for another place though. It could have been that time passed very slowly while not feeling back in time at all.

Time to end. My coffee doesn't wait cooling down.

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    Thanks for the answer. I too sensed a "back in time" experience when walking through the historic areas of St. Augustine, Florida. The Northern Florida town of St. Augustine, is the oldest city in the United States and was founded by the Spanish Empire in 1565-(it predates the founding of Plymouth and even Jamestown). While St. Augustine isn't nearly as old as Pompeii, it was still a unique traveling experience.
    – Alex
    Jun 26, 2021 at 12:31
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    Most American cities and towns aren't as historically well preserved as St. Augustine, though when traveling through St. Augustine, it can "take you back in time".
    – Alex
    Jun 26, 2021 at 12:32
  • Im not sure why your question is voted down... Its a philosophical question "par excellence", so to speak. It cant be answered by any scientific discipline, I guess. So this is the right place. Its about the human condition (terrible words) and it seems to me thats rather philosophical (Maigret, a painter loved by philosophers, even made a painting with that name(.
    – Deschele Schilder
    Jun 27, 2021 at 12:36
  • Yes, I agree, it is definitely a philosophical question.
    – Alex
    Jun 27, 2021 at 16:55

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