The Time Travel Question

I apologize in advance if I misspell some words. I spilled Gatorade on my laptop, and the "B" key on my keyboard doesn't work. I had to remap it to another key, but that's still taking some getting used to. So there may be some missing "B"s in here.

You have almost certainly been faced with the time travel question at some point. If you had a time machine, where/when would you go? This of course leads to a list of great moments in history that you would jump around and see. It probably also leads to questions like "can I change history?" and "can I speak the language?" Anyway, I recently read a post on The Onion's A.V. Club where they answered an interesting variation of this question (posed by comedian Patton Oswalt). I'll just go ahead and post the question in whole here, but you can also see it in the link above, along with their responses. Here's the question:

Where and when would you most want to live for five years, restricted to a five-mile radius?

Everyone says things like “Oh man, how cool would it be to be in Dealey Plaza during the JFK assassination, or see The Beatles during one of their Cavern Club concerts, or witness ancient Rome?” Well, what if you were given the chance?

Here are the conditions. You’ve been granted a hypothetical ticket to live, in comfort and coherence, during one five-year time period. Maybe you want to be in New York in Chicago during Prohibition, or Victorian London, or France right before the Revolution. (Or during—no judgments.) You’ll be able to understand and speak the language (if needed), have enough disposable cash to live at leisure, and experience whatever you want, with no need for a job. You’ll have a comfy apartment or house to return to, full period wardrobe, and as much time as you need before making this trip to study up on the period you’ll live in.

But you must stay within a five-mile radius of where/whenever you choose to live. Thus you can’t go see the Kennedy assassination, then go zipping around the world to London to watch the birth of the British Invasion, or New York for the early years of Greenwich Village. Want to see the Kennedy assassination? Fine. But then you’re stuck in Dallas for the next five years.

What historical period (and place), in your opinion, offers the most enticing experiences in one five-year period?

To that, I'll add a few caveats of my own.

1) You can't change history. When your fives years ends, you return to the present day, and everything goes back to the way it was. No going back a few years and investing in Google stock. No mucking about with history. Simply, what 5 year period would you like to experience?

2) The 5-mile radius seems to be more of a loose guideline given their answers, but the idea is that you're staying in basically one area.

So, those are the guidelines. Where/when would you like to spend 5 years?

For my answer, I immediately jumped to 3 different possibilities. I'm kind of obsessed with The Reformation right now, so I thought about 16th century Geneva. There are all kinds of interesting places to be during The Reformation, but most of them were too turbulent to want to stay there too long. I probably wouldn't want to spend 5 years in England, since the constantly shifting political and religious climate would likely end with me being burned at the stake. Geneva though, was a it more stale, and really was the heart of the Reformation. If I went to Geneva from 1555-1559, not only would I get to hang with Calvin, but that's also the period when John Knox was living and preaching there, along with all the other various reformers who fled to Geneva when driven out of their own countries.

Another possibility is, as mentioned by one of the A.V. Club staff, is Alexandria, sometime in the first few centuries. I mean, who doesn't want to hang out at the Library of Alexandria for a few years and read the most significant collection of documents in the ancient world? Ok, so, many people probably wouldn't, but I think it'd be pretty cool. Of course, it's also in Egypt (super cool) and was basically the major cultural center outside of Rome.

I'm tempted to go back to Albuquerque in 1983 simply to watch the greatest sporting event of all time (the 1983 Final Four, and the last time anyone cared about N.C. State basketball). It would almost be worth it, but then I'd have to spend the next 5 years in 1980s Albuquerque. Yuck.

Of course, the obvious choice is Jerusalem, circa 33 AD, and it's tough to argue with that. You get the crucifixion and Pentecost and you get to witness the beginning of the early church. Maybe Jerusalem from 31-35 (just to make sure we get the right year). That's hard to top.

So, I'd probably go with 1st Century Jerusalem narrowly edging out 16th century Geneva. That's tonight though, and the answer may be different tomorrow. There are tons of good answers to this, and since my knowledge of history is mediocre at best, I'm probably missing quite a few good ones. How about you, dear reader? Where/When would you go?