If you could travel back in time….

I do not think I would "do" anything. Many people when asked what they would change about their own life if they could go back answer "nothing" because everything in their past made them the person they are today. The good and the bad. So they would not want to change anything. I feel the same way in general. Our world today such as it is is made up of everything that came before and so I would not change a thing. Especially as even the most well intentioned change could potentially have dramatically harmful unforeseen effects.

However if the travel back in time was purely for observation with no interaction of any kind - that would be very appealing. There is so much I feel would be worth going back to see. The actual building process of the pyramids. A fly on the wall through many of the events of the alleged Jesus, if he existed at all. Many famous speeches and concerts just to be in the crowd feeling the actual feels. Watch live the missing Doctor Who episodes as they were actually broadcast :)

The list would be huge.

Dara o'Briain put the problem well

https://youtu.be/BVxOb8-d7Ic?si=7VyM0Pe7yy3OFMsI

Mine may be mundane, but I always thought it'd be cool to go back in time to my local town from say 80-100 years ago. See how much things have changed, go to the precusors of the pubs I drink in today, take a walk down the country roads to my homestead. Maybe encounter my grandparents when they were younger.

This is such an Irish answer. I'd go to the same pub I go to today :)

Btw, I know I'm slagging you a bit but to be fair it would be interesting.

As for the OP, if you put in the caveat that through some magical means you would be safe, could disguise yourself/blend in, and could communicate, then you'd get a lot more varied answers. Because otherwise my wish to see ancient Rome, or Ancient China or to see dinosaurs, would be a bit of a death wish.

I'd go back to Austria in the late 19th century and become a friend of Adolf Hitler. I'd be nice to him and try to get him to go with me to join some clubs and to take up some hobbies. Things like dancing and Gaelic Football. We'd go travelling around Europe but just to meet people of other cultures and religions. We'd become friends with some Jews and write a book together, called Meine Liebe.

I’d travel back to the era of the Antebellum South. I’d fit in well as an Irish immigrant. I’d probably even write a book about it which would become the next best favourite book of American readers besides the Bible! 😁

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antebellum_South

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(novel)

I'd have lots of terribly intellectual answers for this one but in all honesty I'd go back to 2008/09 and throw 1000 quid on Bitcoin.

Any time new lands and inhabitants were being discovered, with Colombus, Magellan, Livingstone etc. The wild west in America. Must have been an amazing experience, the world is much smaller now.

Was that the year you got married.

The last Ice Age.

Europe was like one big safari park back then.

Not trust what people tell you and keep MY money for myself

LA in the 70s, was a wild and exciting time in music and cinema.

Somewhere in the Balkans/Austria-Hungary in the late 19th/early 20th century. A truly fascinating period of time.

Icelandic hasn't changed too much in that past 1000 years, I think, apart from new additions to the vocabulary.

I am just back from a trip to Boston and while doing the tours I was thinking what it would be like to go back to that time when the American revolution was kicking off, like you say to observe, get the feeling of the people there and see what the place was like things like that.

Ideally back to the 80's but If I had a specific choice it would be 8th December 1979 when I had my first date with my now wife.
2 things I would absolutely change,
1) I would never had smoked. * gave them up August 1991 and never touched them since.
2) Alcohol, Bastard of a thing cost me an absolute fortune and almost my relationship.

Whatever you do, or don't do, you already did, or didn't do.

I'd rather go forward, see what becomes of us.

I hope you'd warm him not to invade Russia? To be happy with France, half Poland and the low countries?

I'd go back to the crucifixion of Jesus and follow him the 40 days after he rose from death