Time Traveling in the Sky

So, I’m in France! I arrived yesterday and will be staying for about two weeks.
As you may know, there aren’t any "direct" flights between Asia and Europe nowadays. By "direct", I mean flying in a somewhat straight line over Russia.
Some flights go south of Russia, but that route is much longer and uses much more energy (read: kerosene). And a lot of the Middle East also needs to be avoided, so it's not the best route. The more common alternative route goes north towards Alaska, then between the North Pole and Canada, over Greenland and on to Europe.

This is the route I took this time. And because I left Japan in the evening, something interesting happened.

I left Japan on Wednesday night. We reached the Bering Strait shortly after midnight on Thursday. However, as we passed the International Date Line, we suddenly found ourselves back to shortly after midnight on Wednesday. The sun rose a few hours later as we flew near the North Pole. Then, it was night again around the time we reached Greenland. So, Wednesday number two lasted between six and eight hours (I didn't keep close track, especially because I was trying to sleep). We eventually landed in Paris right before dawn on Thursday.

My flight started on Wednesday evening, continued after midnight on Thursday, and then back to Wednesday again. A Wednesday that lasted much less than 24 hours, and I finally arrived in Europe on Thursday morning.

That’s nothing new or special. If you’ve flown between continents, you have similar stories. When I lived in the US, I remember how my days would last less than or much longer than 24 hours depending on which way I was flying.
Still, this was the first time in my life that I saw two sunsets and two sunrises in 24 hours. We’re still far from the 16 sunrises and sunsets that astronauts aboard the ISS experience.

This phenomenon obviously began with long-haul flights, but it could be experienced much earlier. The most famous example, albeit fictitious, is Phileas Fogg and Passepartout (and Detective Fix) racing to go Around the World in 80 Days but unknowingly doing it in 79 days. Some people, emulating the novel actually experienced it too, starting with Nellie Bly and a bunch of others.

I guess that’s all for today. Nothing too special, just one of the oddities of the world that makes sense when you think about it.
It's totally logical and has an easy scientific explanation, yet it still feels somewhat supernatural if you rely only on your instincts and feelings.

Until next time.

Thanks for reading.

David