The 21th of February across time

Another day of excitement and opportunity to witness historic events. I hope you are ready because we have cultural advances not to be missed along with intense military drama and certain places to avoid at all costs!

Here we go,
First of all some places to be:

1804 A.D. – The first self-propelling steam locomotive in motion at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales. Steamy technology for the masses!

1848 A.D. – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto. Get your copy while they are still fresh! Highly collectible…

1878 A.D. – The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut. Another nice piece for your collection…

And now beware of the ”places to avoid” section (unless you have a death wish):

1543 A.D. – A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn at the Battle of Wayna Daga. About 24.000 combatants in total and heavy estimated casualties (historically unknown).

1907 A.D. – 125 people perish when the S.S. Berlin sinks near Hoek van Holland.

1916 A.D. – World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.

1970 A.D. – A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland. Stay away from Swissair Flight 330!

1973 A.D. – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108. Flight 114 is a red flag people…

Take care now and remember,

Stay safe – travel light!

What can go wrong in time travelling – food related issues

Dear Traveller,

One of the best things in travelling (both in time and in space) is tasting the food cooked at your destination (wherever and whenever you might go).

One of the first things any traveller (and any human being for that matter) needs to know, is their own self (“Know thy self”). More particularly, know your own stomach… Avoid everything that might cause you gastric problems… General try to be conservative in what you buy from marketplaces, agoras etc…

Some time-travellers I know choose to take something of their own to eat while travelling in order to avoid annoying problems… This is too much, but should you think you have no alternative you can do it… If you do, there are two rules to remember: (Check your handbook, pages 205-207)

•  NEVER (and I do mean NE-VEEEEER) let any of the local people living in the past take a glimpse of your cereal bar of muffin… They get questions, and then they start getting ideas… and the whole time-space continuum things gets messy… and trust me you don’t want to go there…

 

• If you do bring food from the present back to the past… make sure it kind of looks like something they had back there… no raising suspicions, no problems! And please… please, don’t let the locals taste it… (read the bullet above…)

 

Generally though, I would suggest tasting the food… Some amazing flavors have been lost in the course of time, and you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to tasting them… even maybe getting the recipe from a local cook…

Good times to travel for expanding your cooking horizons:

• Ancient Greece: Definitely a good destination… Make sure you have some pork cooked in wine… and some sweets… their sweet taste is due to the honey in them… and I doubt you’ve even tasted a better honey… Make sure you don’t insult them about the wine; the Greek tended to put water in it, so as to stay as much sober as possible.

 

• Rome: The empire years… The general Lukulus is famous for his feasts (and orgies, but that a different story). Rumor has it that the food that was served in just one of his feast was of great variety and enough to feed a whole city… Lukulus was also the one that brought cherries into Rome… and most of the sweets served in his feasts included cherries (yam-yam..)

 

• The Machu Pichu: at the age of the Mayan civilization. Beverages of coffee beans and pure chocolate… Meat cooked with chocolate… Sweets made of chocolate… Body paint of chocolate… chocolate… chocolate… chocolaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate….

Places to avoid… hmmm, that’s tricky… best to avoid medieval Europe… and Australia… China, unless you like sushi… and the south of Africa… France, is definitely out of the question!!! You might think “Why is she telling as not to go to these places? The have amazing food”… Not back then, my friends… not back then…

Other than that… Try to keep an open mind… Try to keep a low profile… and make sure you enjoy yourselves!

Good day to you… “Wherever” you are…

 

E.

 

Travel money – Useful tips

One of the most important aspects of The Travel, is the desire to procure unique items to remind us of our journeys.

Fortunately or not, in most instances you will have to acquire these items through a very common exchange of local-time currency. So, it’s best to be prepared!

When knowing exactly the time and place to visit, be sure to obtain the correct currency. Unfortunately, it will always be costly to find and exchange old money and even more so, the further back you will have to go. In some instances it might also be illegal (antique/archaic pieces for example) or just plain impossible.

Some travellers will enter societies using forms of value such as beads, ingots, ivory, various forms of weapons, heavy stones, variously shaped metals, livestock, ochre, other earth oxides and so on.

The above eventualities may lead to worrisome and complicated situations but don’t worry; there are solutions for the well-equipped individual.

Silver and gold have, since antiquity, proved to be excellent trading minerals in all forms and sizes. Even if you have already meticulously planned your destination and gathered the appropriate monetary units, we would suggest that you also pack a little of the above, for any emergency or occasion.

Carrying always on your person silver/gold rings or sticks (refrain from being too obvious please!) is essential for any circumstance. Be sure to use plain, unremarkable shapes (no ornaments) so as not to draw attention to yourself and/or disrupt your timeline. Another nice item to serve the same purpose would be a necklace or bracelet with a modular shape, consisting of several pieces that could be separated at will and traded on their own. Use your imagination for this and if you come up with a better alternative, send it in.

That’s my tip for the day,

Stay safe, travel light and spend wisely!

The 17th of February across time

An exciting day for travelling today. We have artistic events, the end of the Prohibition (party on!) and lots of military action.

Let’s go!

Places to be:

1904 A.D. – Madama Butterfly premiers at La Scala in Milan. Not to be missed!

1913 A.D. – The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.

1933 A.D. – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States. Are you ready to partyyyy?

1936 A.D. – The world’s first superhero, The Phantom, makes his first appearance in comics. Somebody bring me a first edition copy. Cheers!

Places to avoid (unless you are addicted to pain):

197 A.D. – Battle of Lugdunum (or Battle of Lyon) – Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats and kills his rival Clodius Albinus, securing full control over the Empire. Since this battle is said to be the largest, most hard fought and bloodiest of all clashes between Roman forces, we would suggest the more hardcore travellers among you, to witness the event (taking all necessary precautions of course). According to the historian Cassius Dio, the number of combatants (disputed figure-drop us a line on actual numbers if you drop by) involved were 300,000, or 150,000 on either side.

1500 A.D. – Battle of Hemmingstedt near the village of Hemmingstedt in present-day Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Duke Friedrich and Duke Johann attempted (unsuccessfully) to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, who had established a peasants’ republic on the coast of the North Sea. The peasants, although numerically fewer (about 6.000) and lightly armed, managed to use the terrain to trap, drown and render inoperable the advanced military force of the attackers (12.000 total – 4.000 mercenaries from the Netherlands, 2.000 armoured cavaliers, about 1,000 artillery-men and 5,000 commoners). The casualties among the Dithmarshians are not known, but the Danish and the Dutch lost together more than half of their army, making about 7,000 men killed and 1,500 men wounded.

1814 A.D. – Battle of Mormans which resulted in the victory of the French under Napoleon Bonaparte against the Russians and Württembergers under Count Pahlen.

1865 A.D. – Columbia, South Carolina burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces during the American Civil War.

1944 A.D. – The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.

1944 A.D. – Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan’s main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.

1957 A.D. – A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri kills 72 people.

1962 A.D. – A storm kills more than 300 people in Hamburg, West Germany.

1979 A.D. – The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.

2006 A.D. – Over 1,000 people perished and buried alive in the town of St. Bernard in Southern Leyte, Philippines mudslide.

I’ll leave you to decide your travel plans now. As always,

Stay safe – travel light!

What can go wrong in time travelling – falling in love…

Dear Traveller,
In this list of “misfortunes” that can happen to you while time travelling around the universe, falling in love with inappropriate people may be more tricky that one might think…

And since Valentine’s Day is upon us, today’s subject will be about that… I was never a big fan of this particular day, and always believed that everyday should be Valentine’s day. Of course, for time-travellers it actually CAN be everyday…

Falling in love…

Aaaaah… the first time you lay eyes on her/him… What a wonderful moment right? WRONG! Meeting strangers from different life lines can affect history in the most strange and unorthodox way… Chaos my friends…

Let me elaborate…

1. Never underestimate the cultural differences… he says tomAto, she says tomAAAAAto…

2. “When” would you live? Past?… Future?… and there are those of us who were actually tempted to stay back in the timeline, but, my friends… i have a couple of words for you… toilet paper… if you catch my drift…

3. What would you do if you stay back there?… There can only be a number of “wizards”,”inventors”, “science officers”, “princes/ princesses”… and if you bring your significant other back to the present… what will they do?… The present (and the past, for that matter…) does things to your head… now the future… well, that’s a different story…

4. How positive are you that your significant other is NOT of your bloodline, and that by messing up with them, you might be putting your whole existence into jeopardy?… Think about that when you’re walking down the isle with them…

5. Most people from the past tend to react really, really, really, RE-HE-ally badly when you tell them that you’re not from their time… Unless you want to lose them once and for all, tell them you’re… I don’t know… pick a profession that travels a lot and keep coming back to them… ONLY when you’re sure you’re not messing with history…. (Check your travelling rules about that – pages 352-468 of your handbook)
Just keep in mind, that “tourism” is far from “interfering” with the locals…

Have to go now… my significant other is waiting for me a few years back in time to celebrate the day…

Goodnight to you… “whenever” you are…

E.

The 14th of February across time (Happy Valentine’s Day)

Not a good day for travelling really… Mildly boring and all things considering, very dangerous for many timezones.

Better stay at home with your loved one – just saying!

Places to be:

1945 A.D. – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relationship.

1949 A.D. – The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.

Places to avoid (unless you are feeling invincible):

1349 A.D. – 2,000+ Jews are burned to death by the crowd or exiled from Strasbourg.

1797 A.D. – The day of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent – The British Royal Navy is victorious against a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.

1804 A.D. – The First Serbian Uprising is lead by Karadjordje against the Ottoman Empire.

1879 A.D. – The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.

1900 A.D. – In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State (Second Boer War).

1919 A.D. – The Polish-Soviet War begins.

1945 A.D. – On the second day of the Bombing of Dresden in World War II the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden.

1945 A.D. – Bombing of Prague – probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.

1981 A.D. – A fire in the Dublin nightclub ”Stardust” kills 48 people.

1990 A.D. – 92 people are killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.

2004 A.D. – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.

2005 A.D. – Seven people were killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines’ Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.

Take care this perilous day in time,

Stay safe – travel light!