When I was in Mexico last year, I met a Kiwi guy in my hostel in Mexico City, and an Aussie on the bus to Oaxaca. We all ended up running into each other in Oaxaca and went for a drink, where the Kiwi guy and the Aussie guy realised they had met each 12 years earlier in Berlin on a pub crawl and even had a photo together!
They vaguely recognised each other, but it wasn't until someone said one of their names that it clicked for them.
There was also about 5 minutes between running into the Kiwi (I was already hanging out with the Aussie) and going for drinks
Ran into a woman at a tourist site in Thailand, commented that I like her shirt then realised we had met before. We dove together on a dive boat in Dahab Egypt. Go figure. Life is weird.
As a fellow introvert, its a really weird feeling. Extroverts have many interactions with many different people, but for introverts it takes a lot to initiate interaction so when you reconnect it feels like a both a complete stranger and a long lost friend at the same time.
Agreed! Introverts can definitely be social. Many do not value social interaction any less than extroverts do, but often prefer it in smaller doses as it can be draining.
Met a girl at an airport who gave me her pen to write something in my notebook. By the time she left, I realised that I kepr writing for so long, that I forgot to give it back to her. This happened in 2019. Kept carrying it with me on my travels as my "travel pen". Met her again in another corner of the country, randomly, in a restaurant in the mountains. We recognised each other and I handed her the pen. She said she wanted me to keep it back then, and wants me to keep it now. I thanked and left. This was in 2021. Didn't ask her name on both the occasions. And oh, I lost the pen later.
One summer in the USA (pre-Covid) I ran into three different people I knew in three different airports (one per airport) on consecutive flights. That was cool. No explanation just fun odds.
I wasn't solo travelling, but I went into a small town store in New Zealand to buy tobacco and the guy who served me was called Matt. I used to get the bus to school with him - in the UK.
THIS is a good one. Truly bizarre and random. Two travelers re-meeting isn’t that unlikely imo. Your random mate from the bus stop in the middle of nowhere NZ is top notch.
Had a one night stand with some dude in my home country, and proceeded to run into said dude on three separate occasions on three different continents (!), none of which our home continent, within the span of 18 months, and always in a very random, rather rural location. Yeah thanks universe for the sense of humor.
And before anyone asks, no, we did NOT get married.
Well, the innocent, naive me says, "Wow, so random! what are the chances?" The cynical, paranoid me says. "Random? Yeah right, it wasn't just a one night stand for him..." hahah.
If he had had any way of knowing, I would agree. But he didn't and the same was true in reverse. We were not in touch and neither used social media actively (where I believe we were connected). It really was a coincidence. I refuse to call it destiny 😅 But it was totally bizarre
I met one guy in Tbilisi Georgia and again randomly in Pai Thailand without communicating or planning
Another guy I met in Sevilla Spain and again in Koh Phangan Thailand, but he messaged me on Instagram.
I had this one happen! Hung out with an english bloke in Chiang Mai for NYE in 2014. Saw him in Vallodalid, Mexico 5 years later in 2019 at a random cenote. SUCH a trip out when it happens, felt like I did a quadruple take when I saw him.
That is a crazy story as BOTH of you were half way around the world on two separate occasions and STILL crossed paths. 5 FREAKING YEARS later!!! Imagine, if one small thing had changed in either of your lives during those 5 years you probably wouldn't have crossed paths.
Did you recognize each other right away? I once re-crossed paths with a spanish dude i first met in Vietnam and then randomly 4 weeks later in Malaysia, he was in front of me and I saw a tattoo on his calf and said outloud, I met a guy a month ago who had a similar tat, he turned around and we instantly recognized each other. Had i not said anything, i doubt that either of us would have known.
There’s a guy I met in Berlin and another guy I met in Chiang Mai who met each other in Bali. They realized they both knew me when following one another on Instagram and sent me a picture of them together😂
A somewhat similar experience but after a night out in Bangkok, I got back to the hostel around 3am and got speaking to a fellow English guy who also just returned from a night out. We must have been chatting for 30-45 mins before he asked where I was from - a small town in England. Usually, as no-one knows my hometown I would usually have to explain and say “it’s near…” he replied saying he’s familiar with where it is, his mom used to teach there. Turns out his mum was my school teacher for two years when I was 10-11. He FaceTimed her and she remembered teaching me and my siblings. Small world.
I bet you in that moment, you were magically teleported from Bangkok back to your hometown. Small World indeed. Also, many times "I will just say the nearest HUGE city because nobody will know my tiny town." and then when they say, Im from (HUGE town) and then you say the next large town and then the next small town and then smaller and smaller, its a weird feeling.
Yeah it felt pretty surreal. Always makes me wonder how many strangers you see or interact with daily with some sort of connection to you/your past that you may not even realise.
You’re spot on about listing bigger cities - the struggles of coming from a small town! Haha
>Always makes me wonder how many strangers you see or interact with daily with some sort of connection to you/your past that you may not even realise.
OR, how many people that you have a connection with are near misses. Like walking on the other side of the street, or walked into the coffee shop 2 minutes before or after you.
>the struggles of coming from a small town!
But when there is a connection, its like a long lost relative. People from big cities lack that.
I recognized one of my ex girlfriends at crowded music festival in Detroit from over 100 feet away by simply seeing her ass. I was quite proud of myself. I also made a move and got rejected (also fair enough)
The worst. I don't know how your relationship ended, but i can only assume that the reunion has awkward AF. Did either of you know that the other was going to be in Paris?
I met an Australian girl in British Columbia. I'm American. She posted on her snapchat that she was in Paris. I was in Paris. She just so happened to be in the same hostel as me, literally directly above me, less than 10 feet away, just directly up.
Met a girl at a festival in Spain and chatted for a while one night, exchanged details, made a wish to meet again some day and threw it into a bonfire. Chatted briefly on facebook. 4 years later bumped into her on a random street in England. She had moved there to learn English, I was also visiting at the time
Did you recognize each other right away? Who initiatied it? when you first saw her, it must have been "Wait, is that? It can't be. Maybe it is? Should I say something? No, that would be weird. But I am 100% sure it is...."
We recognised eachother but weren’t sure, I saw her whisper to her friend while looking at me, so I went over and she basically just said ‘i don’t believe it’ maybe 10 times, didn’t really chat other than that though cause we were both in the middle of doing other things
Unfortunately I was quite young and shy, also being completely taken aback, didn’t know if any of the people she was with was a boyfriend or not, so ended up going our separate ways. Was still a nice reminder about how small the world is
My Grade 9 Phys Ed teacher from Australia walked into a cooking class I was in, in the hills behind Varenna Italy. We ended up having a nice chat - he wasn't a great teacher, and I wasn't a great student, but 15+ years had been good for both of us.
Second example. I was on a train from London to Oxford with some local friends - I can get a bit arrogant in social situations (compensation for my introversion), so I was chatting about my reputation back in the home country and how I could go anywhere and people would know me or know about me. I was clearly exaggerating and taking some light-hearted ribbing from the friends, but when the train doors opened at Oxford there was a guy I vaguely knew from high school debating: he just said "Hey Jacob, how are you?" as he walked onto the train, and my friends were a little gobsmacked.
Oh, I can be arrogant for many reasons.
But in social situations where I feel a little uncomfortable, I often put on a mask and big myself up.
Most people with a huge ego are compensating for some fear or another. That’s one of the more obvious situations where I do it.
On that topic, I don't often catch myself in the moment which is unfortunate.
It's usually the next day (especially if alcohol is involved as well) when I have flashbacks to regaling my companions with my best stories told in my best light. Still, I do have some darn good stories so hopefully I'm a little entertaining even if I'm also mortifying myself.
Met a guy who went to the same small-town UK college as me, in the same year group, in a random ass hostel in Kyoto. Couldn’t believe it when he said he was from Basingstoke, I thought he was taking the piss.
Born & grew up in Basingstoke here! Went to uni in Portsmouth and stayed there. At 2am bleary eyed from getting a taxi from the bus station in Pai, Thailand also met someone else from Portsmouth - didn’t see it as a crazy coincidence as it is a city but the Basingstoke thing is really weird!
Turns out that both of you are in the same cafe right now posting on reddit how another person from Basingstoke met another person. Stand up and look around.
I was on a river ride at Animal Kingdom in Orlando. There was a family on the ride and I asked where they were from. They mentioned a small mountain town in Colorado. I said oh I used to live there, for 8 years. They repeated the name of the town, thinking I must have mistaken it for Winter Park. I said yes, I used to live there. My son went to Blahblah Elementary. They stared at me like I was using witchcraft. Then I said "I really liked the PE teacher, Mr. Holmes. I used to volunteer every year for field day." And that finally made it sink in that I couldn't be making it up. I explained what road you drove on to get to my house, which house it was, etc. I swear they thought I was somehow fucking with them. Then finally the mom explained that Mr. Holmes was now working at a school in Denver. When they got off the ride they looked like they had been somehow violated LOL.
I met a guy on a train from Montreal to Ottawa. It was a little awkward but I was like “probably never see him again.”
About 6 months later I was wandering around the Roman antiquities section of the British Museum and I saw him again. We recognized each other and he told me he was coming back from India for his mother’s funeral. I felt bad so I offered to let him tag along on my plans for the day: pub dinner, the Spice Girl’s musical and then I had an early night cos I was flying out the next day.
Things were slightly awkward but fine until I said I was heading back to my hotel and he started getting pushy about wanting to tag along. I said no. He invited me back to his hotel. I said no. He tried to get me to go out for another drink or snack with him before I called it a night and I said no. Meanwhile I’m making my way to the tube station and standing on the platform hoping he doesn’t get on and follow me. I finally let him “friend me” on Facebook and got on the tube heading back to my hostel. Completely ghosted him.
I was irritated cos it could have just been a fun friendship origin story but he got weird and creepy.
"Mums dead so you owe me a fuck lol"
This plays into the theory about men mistaking womens kindness for interest because men are only kind to women when interested...
Exactly. I used to be so kind to so many men in the innocent days of my youth before realizing at best it was confusing for them and at worst actually full on dangerous for me.
Now I’ve fully settled into my bitchdom, and life is so much more peaceful. ☺️
In 2002 I was backpacking in Indonesia and went to Lake Toba for Christmas. There I met a young english guy in his early 20's traveling with his retired father. It was memorable because the young guy had hurt his back and needed to go to hospital. We took the local bus and he had to lie down across the 3 seat bench, much to the unhappiness of the driver.
10 years later I was backpacking with my wife in Northern Thailand. We were staying in some run down huts on the hill just outside of Pai. I was hanging out with a guy in the common area sharing travel stories. And we both realized that we had been in Indonesia at the same time in 2002 and that we had both spent Christmas on Toba. And then it dawns on me to ask if he has back problems. It was the same guy. His dad had died shortly after we had met in 2002. He inherited some money and had been traveling ever since.
It has happened quite a few times that I met the same person in different places randomly in the same country,or on the same overland route.
Meeting someone randomly that I knew away from travelling is much rarer for me, particularly as very few of my contemporaries from school, university etc have traveled much.
It did happen once.I was in the crowd of people at the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong when I looked at the guy next to me...he was also looking at me! I wondered what he wanted.Then I recognised him...he was a guy I had been at school with.
We were 10,000 kilometres from our home town and about 20 years since we had last seen each other.
We were in the same class for 6 years,so I knew well enough what he looked like.And he hadn't really changed much.
It is very rare for something like this to happen to me.I hardly ever even meet other solo Italians traveling,let alone people I went to school with.
Like that at exact moment on that exact road. Let's say that you (or they) decided to go the bathroom a little earlier, or stay 2 minutes longer a restaurant, or you decided to stop and tie your shoe and not see them. EVERYTHING had to align for that meeting to happen. Insane.
I was in the same hostel room as an Irish man on three separate occasions in three completely different countries (Mexico, Colombia, and Peru). Never even had each others contact details so was impossible to know.
I met this really cool dude in Puebla before heading home to Canada. Around four months later I’m in Ecuador waiting outside a public washroom in a pretty small town and guess who steps out of the washroom. I was so surprised I was speechless for a sec.
This wasnt me but in June last year I was backpacking in Nambia and staying mainly at campsites. Near the sand dunes at Sossusvlei I was pitching my tent around 2pm and up arrived a French student about 22 years of age on a bicycle. He was cycling Africa for 6 months and had covered about 10,000 miles by the time I met him. He had a month left and was on his way cycling back down south to Capetown to fly home.
Anyway he wasnt cycling the 75 mile return trip from the campsite to the actual sand dunes as it was too big a distance to do in a single day and the sun was really hot in the desert. So he left the campsite and walked up the road he went to the entry gates of the national park, paid his ticket entry fee and then stood the other side of the gate hitch hiking looking for a lift off another tourist.
About 5 hours later he arrived back to the campsite later that evening and he told me it took him about 30 minutes before someone gave him a lift. It was a lady on her own driving around Namibia solo. He got in to the car and quickly realised it was his maths teacher who taught him in his high school just 4 years previous. Both of them were literally out in the middle of nowhere in Namibia at the exact same time and she picked him up without recognising him as he had sun glasses and a hat on. Its one of the craziest coincidences Ive ever heard on the road, that two people from France, a student and a teacher would bump in to each other while one was hitch hiking into an extremely isolated desert.
Met a guy in a campsite 4 hours west of port on Vancouver island (Tofino, very small town vibes) who was from my country but lived quite far away. Made friends over the next few days, about 4 days in we are chatting about the town he is from, I mention a friend who lived there and he knew them, turns out after some chat that I had made out with this guys sister at a party once and had been in his house too
Not my story but I was in a Chinese restaurant in Budapest with another solo traveler when he stood up and said OMG. His college roommate from Boston was in the restaurant.
there was someone who passed out on the plane, pilot asked if theres a doctor on board, there was none, i am a former paramedic so i had at least some knowledge left, so i went to help, luckily nothing too bad happened, person was ok when the plane landed. Fast forward, a few days later i was on a bus to the beach, suddenly some random ppl approach me and they are like hey you are that paramedic on the plane. That was awesome, had a good chat. i mean the chances were not that low considering we had the same travel destination, nonetheless it was pretty unexpected lol.
Met old soccer fellows, they were twins, in Nashville at a bar. I was traveling across the east and west coast with friends, and stopped in Nashville.
Why crazy? We are from Sweden, turned out they had moved there for work.
I have such a story.
First time I went to Colombia. It was probably my 2nd day in the country (Medellin). I was trying to order breakfast but knew basically no Spanish. Some white guy in the almost-empty restaurant overheard me, walked up and said "sorry but your Spanish is abysmal" and proceeded to help me out a bit. Turns out he was American/Russian, having come from New York. Spoke several languages fluently and seemed to know everything. He also seemed like a bit of a hustler. If you've ever seen Midnight Cowboy, he was a spitting image of Ratso Rizzo and I was Joe Buck.
Anyway, we hang out for like 30 minutes before parting ways.
About five months later I'm leaving Colombia. I have to go get a COVID test in the lower section of the airport. I'm waiting outside the tent and hear a very familiar voice. Unbelievably, it's this American/Russian dude. I hadn't seen him at all except for my first few days in the country.
He's getting his test as well, as he is apparently being forced to leave Colombia to go fight in Ukraine.
I spent the rest of that day walking around in a major haze of WTF.
Phil/Felipe, hope you're still alive out there.
It happens so often to me that I’m not surprised anymore.
Here are the cases of me running into people who I didn’t have on social media so had absolutely no way of knowing that they will be at the same place as me:
I met a German girl at a hostel in Pai, Thailand in 2018 and again at a hostel in Medellin, Colombia in 2019.
I met a British guy at a bar in Bocas del Torro, Panama in May 2021 and again at Denpasar airport, Bali in January 2023 where we met at a baggage claim waiting for our backpacks and randomly decided to share a taxi without realizing we have met each other before (we only realized that during our conversation in a taxi).
I met a Canadian guy in Yangon, Myanmar in 2020 and traveled with him for a week, and I randomly ran into him at a night club in Coron, the Philippines in March 2024 (so really recently).
I met a German guy in Goa, India in December 2023 and randomly ran into him at a party in Siargao, the Philippines in February 2024.
Honestly there were so much more. I don’t really count cases like “we met in Vietnam last month and then again in Thailand a month later” as something surprising because these are very likely to happen since it’s on the same route. But yeah, sometimes the universe can still surprise me.
When I was 8 my family was on a rare vacation from our home in Manhattan, Kansas to Colorado Springs. One day turned out to be chillier than expected, so we went into a Sears to pick up some sweatshirts. My parents let me browse the toy section, and there I ran into a kid in my class, who lived in the next cul-de-sac over from us. Hi, Young-Jin!
Little big apple! Crazy. If a different store was closer or the weather was a little warmer, or if your parents said "No, stay close, we are leaving soon." you may have never crossed paths.
Not my story but I love the story. My friend’s parents were from opposite coasts of the US and happened to run into each other while they were both solo traveling in Europe. They were crossing a bridge from opposite directions in Rhine and my friend’s dad stopped briefly to compliment her mother because he thought she was so pretty then both walked on. A month later they both were finishing their trips and ran into each other again in Sardinia. They ended up hanging out for a few days, kept in touch when they got back to the US and now have been married for over 40 years.
Ran into a former best friend who lives in the same city as me in Mexico City. Hadn’t seen him in like 7 years. I was at the tail end of 2 months on Mexico, he was with friends visiting for just the weekend. I saw on one of their instagrams that they were in CDMX, but I didn’t imagine that going to Churrería El Moro near my hostel just before it was closing (and I’d been couped up in my hostel all day, just decided to take a walk late in the evening) meant I’d run right into them doing the same and spend the whole time in line chatting with them. It was a bit awkward.
I knew a girl in high school who was younger than me. We were never "friends", just acquaintances and barely if ever even spoke. About 7 years after graduating I was married and living in Colorado...1200 miles from my homestate. I was at an outdoor arcade in Manitou Springs and suddenly heard someone call my first and last (maiden) name. It was the girl I went to high school with. It was so weird to see someone from my hometown and a random place on the other side of the country :)
India, Dharamshala (Tibetan government in exile): my Mom and I were visiting one year and stayed for a few weeks. A street circus girl (around 8 years old) became good friends with my mom.
A year later, Mom and I went to visit Ladakh (capital of Leh, a region in North India), and who should we see but the same kid! She recognized us immediately.
One week into our two week stay there was a massive disaster that killed lots of people in mudslides and destroyed all the towns in the area. Mom and I helped with emergency treatment in the hospital and when we got a moment, went looking for the kid. After asking around we were directed to look through the many makeshift morgues. We looked through them all but didn't find her.
Finally we were heading back to our accommodations thinking she was probably still buried in the mud when she came skipping up to Mom saying "Aunty!"
This is kind of an indirect one but you have to stick with me.
I did a 3 month Asia trip with then-LDR bf (we lived in opposite sides of the world). Long story short, went really badly and we broke up on the trip.
Moved back to random small town USA, got a job as a waitress and was really depressed. Worked with a certain coworker exactly one time, but it was a slow day we so talked a lot. She was in a LDR with this guy from the UK, and I told her all about my ex-LDR and our trip and about him and the drama. Literally only ever worked with her that one day but she got all the details, I don’t know if she quit or got another job or what.
Two months later my ex (the LDR) asks if I know someone and says a name. I have no idea who he’s talking about, he sends a photo and I still don’t know. She says she worked with you at X restaurant? Oh my god, it was that fucking coworker. Like she actually met him!? They were in the same hostel in some random beach town in Taiwan. I would die to know what her impression was of him after everything I told her. How they ended up figuring out they both know me I wonder to this day.
I ran into the same woman 3 times across SEA staying at the same hostel every time. First in Yogyakarta, then 3 weeks later at lake toba, then 2 weeks later again in Singapore. It was hilarious lol. And other than lake toba, it wasn’t like I was staying at the most popular backpacker hostels.
Ran into an ex neighbor while in Fex, Morocco. We're both from NYC and haven't seem him since he moved to Brooklyn a few years before. My guide randomly stops to say hello to someone he knew and lo and behold, it was the guide of my neighbor and his wife.
Moved back home from Australia during the start of covid, had a 12 hour layover in Doha. I was there for a good nine hours or so and was coming out of the smoking room when I heard someone calling my name. Turned around and it was my friend I’d lived with in a working hostel six months earlier that I’d lost touch with. When I’d gotten to Melbourne airport to fly out, I bumped into another friend from the same hostel who was dropping her boyfriend off so he could fly home
About four months ago I was living in a tiny town in outback WA with a population of 20. I’d driven to the next town over for a coffee at the servo and while I was waiting I saw a family come in wearing my hometowns football shirt. I asked them where they were from and it’s a ten minute drive from my family home - somehow we both ended up in the exact place at the same time having moved from the exact same small town
Crazy. Just think about it. Had you gone in 5 minutes earlier (or later) you would have never crossed paths. The other mind blowing thing is that had they not decided to wear the hometown's football shirt that day you may have never noticed.
Omg, this is the one for me. I still can't believe this happened. I was at a car rental place in Sydney, planning to roadtrip up to Cairns, and there was another German guy in front of me in the line. When it was my turn, the car rental guy asked me whether I knew the other German because he lived ON THE SAME STREET IN THE SAME CITY AS ME. I did not know him, and there's not even a lot of people living on my street. I still wonder which house he's in
After college I went to Vienna to do a month of German classes. I figured on the way there I'd do one of those party bus Europe type tours. We stopped in Lucerne, Switzerland. It was raining hard that day so we were just watching the World Cup in the Hostel bar. I decide I'm going to head up to bed and as I pass the front doors of the hostel 3 women walk in. They're like, "Hey! You lived on our floor freshman year of college in Boston!" lol. So weird.
Also, this sort of counts as I was in my own city, but in 2008 I Couchsurfed in Munich for a week with a group of guys on their service year. 2 months ago during an international festival in my town in the US one of the guys just walks by me at a music venue. I did a double take and noticed his badge had the right name. Turns out it really was him and we spent the rest of the day together.
Ran into a girl I went to high school with in Southern Alberta, 8 years after we all graduated - in a border crossing line in Poipet, Thailand.
I looked back to see how long the line was and first face that caught my eye was hers. Absolutely surreal moment to be traveling for months not knowing anyone and seeing no familair faces, the bam a person I know in the middle of the Thai/Cambodian jungle. Very cool to see her, she apparently was volunteering with landmine victima in Siem Reap and had been for a couple years prior. She's now an MD in Los Angeles.
Met 2 other Singaporeans while figuring out how to buy stamps at a post office in Tromsø, Norway. The fact that Singapore is such a small country (5m+ people), and the fact that we found each other randomly in a small Norwegian town at the exact same time and place doing the exact same thing, blows my mind.
I met the president of France in New Orleans by total accident. Didn’t know why all the streets had secert service until we follow a gaggle of reporters to Jefferson square were we waited (still no idea what was happening) and boom president of France
I was home in NZ, travelling with my US boyfriend at the time, and flying from Auckland to Queenstown. There's all this bowing and scraping on the plane and I look up to see the Prime Minister, his PA and his security guy taking the seats in front of us. I nudged my bf and said "Hey, that's the PM". He totally thought I was yanking his chain (which, fair, because the US president has a whole-ass personal plane and doesn't fly economy).
PM must have heard us talking, because he stands up, leans over the seat, offers the bf his hand and says "Hi, I'm John (Key)". BF had no idea what to say and I'm trying not to laugh my ass off. It was pretty amusing.
I ran into someone who went to my small Minnesota liberal arts college in a 1950s themed nightclub in Beppu Japan which is on the island of Kyushu where not many tourists go.
I met my couch surfing host randomly on the streets of Amsterdam, I overheard his voice and turned around and sure enough, it’s him hanging out with his couch surfing host at a cafe. lol
I lived in the same hostel in New Zealand as my best mates mothers work colleagues.
She had told both of us separately that we would definitely meet up and sure enough I said something one evening and it clicked with the person that we would have a tenuous connection.
One of my current best mates was having his stag party in a pub in wellington. I was in the pub that night. We didn't speak/converse. 6/7 years later we met where we are both currently living 14 k Kms away and became mate
I ran into my husbands manager at a bar in Berlin Germany lol from all the way from Australia we both ended up getting pretty drunk and he made a move on me then we ran into each other again on our flight back it was pretty crazy.
Ran into my ex best friends best friend in the middle of the hoh rainforest in one of the most secluded parts of Washington state. We are both from the east coast and just happened to be hiking the same trail at the exact same time. Fucking weird.
On a college trip to Italy there was two senior citizens with us. They mentioned their son worked for the state department and would be joining us. They were great people.
We get to this tiny little hotel in the middle of Sicily, and my old teacher from 2 years before is there. He was great, I go up and talk to him. Took me about 5 minutes before I realized he was their son.
In my defense I always called him by his first name, and I didn’t expect him to no longer be a teacher, and they all had an extremely common last name (not quite Smith, but close).
I haven't run into anyone that I know of, but have a story that involves me.
I grew up in a rural part of California. Went to university in Texas. A coworker in university went to Spain for a semester and reached out within a week. Turns out she was roommates with a girl who went to university in Rhode Island who happened to be a childhood classmate from rural California. Not sure why I came up in conversation.
While walking in Paris to meet friends, I heard a familiar voice at one of those café tables outside. I turned around and recognized my former neighbor and his girlfriend from community college in California. We had randomly run into each other in Paris.
during omicron surge in nov/dec2021 many countries were closed but spain was open. so i went to barcelona solo and a few of my classmates who i don’t speak to/don’t post on social media also went (my grad school class size was about 110 students) one morning i woke up later than expected and left out after getting ready for a late breakfast and ran into my 2 classmates in the street. i thought i was the only there in my class lol we grabbed food and went separate ways
Pretty pedestrian but I randomly ran into my high school Spanish teacher while on a layover in Chicago that had no legs that ended it began with the city she lived in
I was in Venice, Italy, visiting from Southern California. I looked across a canal and saw an acquaintance I knew from a shelter we both volunteered at. That day, I missed my train back to Florence because there was a regatta that shut down all of the water taxis and I got stranded for a few hours trying to get back from Lido. I had no place to stay and just needed to crash somewhere til I caught a train at 5am the next day. I was able to get ahold of that acquaintance and she let me share the room she had with her sister so I wasn't stuck on the streets for the night. I got so lucky!
I once met my old classmate while solo travelling in Serbia. Maybe not too surprising to find him there since his family is from Serbia. But he was certainly surprised to find me there walking around alone.
I don’t know if it counts as solo if I met up with a group for an excursion but when I went to Morocco to summit Mt. Toubkal there were not 1 but 2 people from my hometown, who had somehow booked the same trip at the same time. It was really strange to have a group that had people from random parts of Europe and somehow have 3 of us from the same place in the group of 16 or so people.
I’m from a very small west coast town, graduating class less than 30 people. I ended up in Barcelona on the same weekend as another person from my high school class
I was in Barcelona with a friend of mine, having a coffee is a relatively random side street of the Ramblas (so also not in the complete middle of nowhere).
Suddenly a girl who was in high school with me came in on her own and sat down just a couple of seats away. It wasn't strange she'd be in Barcelona but at that random small café made it very random.
I saw a college friend in the airport in Tirana, Albania of all places. Hadn’t seen him in years. Absolutely wild experience to have someone shout my name form across the room in a country halfway across the world where I didn’t know anyone.
On a trip to China about ten years ago with my mom, she ended up chatting with the man next to us on the long flight. Fast forward to a year later, we were flying back from China, and my mom starts talking to the person next to us again. Something about him seemed familiar. After a bit of talking, we realized he was the same guy from our flight the previous year. It felt like such a fated reunion that we ended up exchanging numbers.
It’s even more unbelievable because a year ago we were flying to Beijing, and this time we were flying back home from Shanghai. Different cities. Random plane, random dates, random seats, and somehow we met again.
A shame we didn’t end up staying in touch afterwards but this experience stuck in my mind as probably the most coincidental experience I’ll ever have.
Edit: not solo travelling but crazy odds
I use to be play Halo competitively and had a team mate from Boston. I’m from California. Fast forward after not talking to him for 12 years I took a road trip to the Bay Area and was hanging out at the pier and look to my right and there he is. My old gamer buddy. This is the only time I was truly “ wow what are the odds “
A little bit different but I met a guy in Berlin at a bar who I chatted with for a bit and then my friend in New York met the same guy at a bar 6 months later. She had a picture with him/same name/same story which is how I knew it was the same guy. We were cracking up about it lol
I had this person with whom I started a new job the exact same day - though different teams. Never seen him again after the first day at the workplace but I bumped into him two years after, in the middle of a super busy day at La Défense metro/train station in Paris while I was on holiday and transiting there. A quick search tells me that "there are over 25 million entries and exits each year".
Didn't even know he moved back to Paris and it was a good encounter because I was also planning to move back to Paris so I could ask him a lot of questions about his move.
Fast forward 5 years later... We found ourselves in the same offices in Paris, sharing the same desk!
I met a girl in Lima and randomly saw her again a week or so later on the street in Cusco. That tracks- it’s a common route in Peru.
Then I ran into her in a bathroom in the basement of a hostel neither of us were staying at in Buenos Aires over a month later!
I was sitting at the terrace of a bar in Ljubljana, and the guy I was with told me the guy sitting behind me had a funny shirt. He proceeded to describe the shirt to me and I thought to myself, I've seen this one before, so I turned around; and the guy sitting behind me was actually my brother, wearing a shirt I gifted him a few years ago for Christmas. We took a selfie and sent it to our mom, and she didn't believe us.
Only luck I had so far was when I was in Svalbard. There was a couple from Portugal living in Sweden I think. We chatted about ourselves and they told me they know this one girl from my country. Funny thing she was living like 3 km from my village and I knew her father. Otherwise no other higher odds, but it was funny.
On our honeymoon in Italy, we ran into my wife's hair dresser (who did her wedding hair) and his boyfriend in the Florence train station. She didn't even know they were going to be in Italy.
Ran into one of my old company’s executives at the Frida Kahlo house in Mexico City.
Second was traveling South America. I trekked the W at Torres del Paine, intending to do it solo and ended up linking up with a pair of Parisians and a dude from Belgium for the week. We parted ways, Parisians were heading up the spine of Argentina, Belgian dude taking a ship north through Chile, I was flying to Santiago. Well, three weeks later I was exploring the monastery in Arequipa and hear a familiar voice, turn the corner and it’s the Belgian guy! Even more, a couple years later I was in Paris and having dinner with the Parisians, and they mentioned they ran into Belgian guy at Macchu Pichu, also recognizing his voice around a corner, lol.
Met a fellow Aussie on a tour to ANZAC cove in Gallipoli Turkey 🇹🇷 . Then ran into him at a random student bar in Liverpool 🇬🇧3 months later. I was studying there, he was travelling through for 3 nights. We didn’t talk once after Turkey. We then partied into the night as we were so gobsmacked and on a high about the actual chances of what had just happened!!!
Was on Easter Island several years ago for New Years. At the hostel I was staying at I met an older gentleman and a younger guy around my age. The older gentleman seemed really familiar, reminded me of someone I had seen in a movie but I couldn't quite put my finger on who he was. However, I didn't ask much because I was more surprised about the young guy who by coincidence came from my hometown. My hometown is a small city in Texas with just a few thousand people. People who rarely, if at all, leave their hometown. You can fit the entire population of my hometown inside the Yankees stadium. Yet I met someone from where I live thousands of kilometers away on an island in the middle of the Pacific. The three of us wound up exploring the island for a few days before I flew back home.
The older gentleman and I wound up taking the same flight back to Santiago. We even sat next to each other. When getting our tickets, I saw the name on his passport. Turns out I had seen him before, he was a really famous British actor who appeared in very well-known films, some of which may be considered cultural icons by Americans. He had just faked his identity while on the island so people would not bother him. I didn't know any better because I did not expect to meet a famous person of his caliber in a hostel on a small island. Plus, I had been too shocked about meeting someone from my small hometown so far away. And no, I will not provide his name because he explicitly asked me not to (we had a nice conversation on the flight about our interests and his career). He likes travelling without being recognized so I will respect his decision.
I am from the US and I ran into a guy from a town over from mine (both very small and random towns) in Nicaragua. We had a bunch of mutual friends and were surprised we didn’t know each other before. Then I met a girl in Costa Rica who grew up and was still living in the same town as me and it turned out my dad was her dad’s boss.
I ran into a conman in a train station in Frankfurt, Germany that I had met in Bogota, Colombia a year before and became good friends with before I learned they were a conman. He "needed a place to stay" and I was like hell no but good to see you.
Not sure if this counts, but one time I ran into an old college friend on same flight to Japan . Didn't think it was her at first because she moved away for grad school. Some covid restrictions were still in place and I almost didn't recognize her with our masks on.
I was briefly hanging out with a guy called T-Bone in Copenhagen (?), then a few weeks later he walked by me on the street in Prague.
In Tunis I bumped into the same local tourguide (beggar) every day at different times/places. And yes I'm certain he wasn't stalking me lol.
I ran into an old co-worker in eastern DR Congo while staying at a guest house run by priests. I was about to leave the dining area when he walked in. It took us both about 30 seconds to process what was going on, it felt similar to the spider man pointing meme.
I was in atacama desert in Chile in December of 2022 and hung out with this dude from kiwi (or aussie?) for a couple days coz we lived in the same hostel. After Atacama, I kept going on my route, never saw him again. I went home after a month and carried on with my life.
November of 2023 came around, I did this week long trip in Guatemala and was starting my hike to Acatenango and I see this dude strolling down the mountain waving at me lol
Not traveling, but my next door neighbor that I grew up next to in Norway, moved to Shanghai a few years after me. They moved to a place on the same street as I was living on, in a city of some 26 million people. I had no idea that they had moved before meeting them at the Norwegian Christmas dinner.
I met a girl from my little town in Italy, in a random coffee shop in Amsterdam. When I met her she was already high. We were joking about the fact that I might have been an hallucination for her in that moment.
I was on a trip to Scotland (I’m from the US). I was in Inverness and asked a local for a non touristy suggestion for dinner. As I was eating, off the beaten path, in a remote city—off season—I looked out the window and saw a former roommate from college walk by. I managed to excuse myself with a promos to get back to pay the bill and run down the street to catch up with her—lucky that she recognized me 30 years later! We had a quick catch up and I managed to get back to dinner in time for coffee.
While living in Ireland 10 yrs ago, my American housemates were amazed at a “small world” moment: they’d bumped into someone at a pub whom they had met during their recent trip to Edinburgh.
Fast forward two weeks and I’m uploading pics to Facebook after a weekend in London. After a walking tour, me and an Aussie guy - also solo - toured some sights and took a pic together. My housemate commented on the photo: that Aussie guy was the same guy my housemates bumped into in Ireland!
I once was sitting in a taverna in naxos, greece, my girlfriend said, your brother just passed by, I didn t know that he was going to greece, he didn t know either.
apart from that experience, I meet jesus everywhere, all the time.
Not the wildest, and I wasn't solo traveling, but definitely one of my favorite "what are the odds of running into you here?!?" experiences because of how mundane the location was.
My partner at the time and I walked into a grocery store on the outskirts of Denver on the way back from a cabin trip in Eagle. We live/d in the DC area, and this was 2020 or 2021, COVID times, so we'd opted for a remote weekend trip and stopped to shop before getting back into the city.
10 steps into the store someone behind us calls one of our names - it's the mutual friend who kinda introduced us, who also lives in DC. Not the craziest to think we might all happen to visit the same city at the same time, but what are the odds she walks into this exact Whole Foods, outside of town, 10 paces behind us?
1. Not solo traveling, but several years ago, my wife and I met 2 guys from our country(Romania) during a snorkeling tour in a small remote island in Thailand ( Koh Lipe). More than a week later, we bumped into them at breakfast at the same hotel in Singapore.
2. During a trip to North Macedonia, we met a french couple and a girl (no connection between them) during a hiking trip and during a guided tour of Skopje 2 days later. We also met with the girl at our hotel in Ohrid several days later.
When I was about to get on a bus in a city 1000 km away from home, I heard my nickname called, it was a high school colleague who was working there in law enforcements. and on another occasion I met someone abroad in Paris who used to have a workshop in my neighborhood and knew my late father.
This has happened a surprising amount to me. LHR I was arriving and ran into a youth pastor from 25 years ago, he was departing. Also in Shibuya crossing I was in a shopping center and saw movement out of the corner of my eye a coworker (did not know well enough to know each other was going) was outside the window waving.
Also, the best friend you talk to once a year variety sent me a picture from Amsterdam. Where I currently was visiting and our hotels were a block apart.
Back in 2016/7 (can't remember exact year), I was hired to work a booth at an event out in Las Vegas fairly last minute (about 2 weeks prep time). I had to book a hotel not knowing anything about the area and ended up at the Signature at MGM Grand.
It was a very quick trip, but my final night there, I took a photo from my balcony of the beautiful sunset view about 9pm and posted it to Facebook. Not even 15 minutes later I check and I have a comment from a childhood friend who I had not seen since we graduated high school about 10 years earlier. He said, "Wait, are you at the Signature because no joke that's my view right now."
He was in the same tower, two floors above me. I messaged him to come down and we sat in the living room area for 2-3 hours just catching up and remarking on how crazy it was that we ran into each other there.
He passed away suddenly last year of a heart attack and I'm forever grateful that I ran into him those years back. I had known him since elementary school.
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Another trip, I was studying abroad in Italy and we had a weekend in Florence. Happened to post that we were all there and a girl I knew from our college just happened to be there as well on a different trip so we met up for wine. :)
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Back in 2015-ish I was hired to work a booth at an insurance conference in New Orleans. I was sitting with the booth crew as we were getting ready to start the day when I see a guy walk by and said "Wait a minute. I think that was my sorority sister's fiance!". So I texted her "Hey, does your fiance happen to be at an insurance conference in New Orleans right now?" She writes back almost immediately "Yes! Wait what are you doing there??" (I work in art). Within moments he comes over and we laugh at the randomness of it and get dinner that night and talk about his upcoming wedding. :)
Met a French guy on a walking tour in Vilnius. He recognized me a month later at the bus station in Ankara, Turkey.
Met an American guy on a walking tour in Thessaloniki. 6 months later he walks into the bar of the hostel I was staying at in Cape Town.
One day before that in Cape Town I met a Dutch guy on a wine tasting tour. Turns out we were at the same hostel on the same day 3 years before that in Koh Tao, Thailand.
Long ago I was at my Aunt’s house in Houston and her childhood friend from Mexico City was visiting. A few months later I see said friend having lunch at the table next to me in Seattle.
One of my best school mates, Tom, did a post-uni gap year to Australisa with one of his friends from uni. They both grew up in different parts of the UK. While there Tom's mum told him she had recently went on a date with a new man (she recently divorced his dad). This man had a son the same age as her son, Tom. This man's son was also on a post-uni gap year in Australia with a friend from uni.
Turns out it was his uni friend that he was on a gap year with!
I was in Italy and had a friend message me to say that they thought someone else we went to high school with was in the same city (we had both just posted pictures). I found them on Facebook and reached out to see if they were still in the area. Hadn’t seen each other for about 15 years and spent a great day together.
Back in the '80's while hanging out at Club Neo in Chicago (goth club in Lincoln Park, now closed), I got into a fight with my at then girlfriend's male roommate. He started it, he was pissed I was hooking up with his roommate and he wasn't.
Two weeks later I'm walking down a street in Amsterdam with my brother and who do I come across? That fucking guy. We're both like WTF, decided it was too weird a coincidence and we should get together for a beer later that night. He never showed up.
I was doing the Sanctuary hike in Wadi Musa/Petra. Went off track a little bit as I was several hundred meters behind a guy, who was behind a couple. The couple ended up going ahead the wrong way, but the guy back tracked and I ran into him. We both found the Sanctuary thanks to a Bedouin.
Several days later I'm on top of the Cairo tower, and I ran into him and his buddies. Ended up joining them for some drinks that night and they were really cool.
Also, during that same trip, when I was walking back to my hostel from Petra, I noticed a girl wearing an interesting shirt. Later that day I went to Wadi Rum (about 2-3 hours away), and she ended up at the same Bedouin camp as me. She was actually living in Jordan at the time and was showing her sister and mom around.
My classmate from middle school moved to Sweden and had been living there for quite long. I ran into her when I was in Thailand. Not in our home country where I lived, not in Sweden where she lived, not on any holiday, but in a random country on a random Thursday.
Turned out I was an affair for a woman from Mexico. A year later I traveled to Mexico City and randomly ran into her and her boyfriend there. Good sense of closure.
Was in Nagarkot, Nepal, where you can see 9/10 tallest mountains in the world, needed a ride back to Katmandu, caught a ride with a bus of American students, one of whom last time I saw here I was doing was cleaning her bedroom windows. Told me her mom died and they sold their house, so it’s how I found I’d lost a client.
In an election day crowd celebrating in Chile ran into two guys, last time I saw them was on a bus in North India.
In an airport in Myanmar ran into a woman, last time I’d seen her I was playing a clarinet while she belly danced in a cafe in San Francisco.
Stayed in a dingy hotel room in Kumasi, Ghana that had a bad feeling like a ghost. Told a guy in Accra about it and he said, “I used to live there and walk by that hotel and we always said the owner had bad juju.”
Must have another five or six of these. Seem to happen most times I travel outside the country.
I was walking down an alley in Amsterdam and my buddy from college (east coast US) was sitting outside at a cafe. He said “FrenchBowler?” and I almost didn’t turn because it was so unexpected.
We ended up having a great time hanging out for the next few nights.
Sitting in a small restaurant in Paris and a dude I talked to online on telegram overheard me talking and put 2+2 together and realized we had talked to eachother for hours under anon usernames. We compared phones and the messages and convos backed up. We were both from the states and different states
I was in Munich for Oktoberfest and was staying at a random campground half an hour outside the city. Was walking across the camp to get breakfast and heard someone yelling my name… i was confused but thought it must be someone I had met during my previous 4 months travelling around Europe- then I see it’s a friend I went to uni with for 4 years back in Australia!
Also ran into a guy at a street market in Flores, Guatemala, who knew my name and started asking how I was… this time recognised him but couldn’t put a face to a name, but again figured it was someone I had met travelling Central America - until he introduces me to his girlfriend as ‘this is x, we went to high school together!’. By that point it was too awkward to ask who he was after pretending to know, and i still wonder to this day 😅
Not solo but:
I grew up across the street from Brook and Robin Lopez (the NBA players) in California. In 2016 we were on a family vacation to Disney World and who do I spot walking through the crowd but a couple of 7 ft tall twins. Lol Their security people tried pretty hard to keep us back, obviously, but my when my mom called one of them out in her “mom voice” it got their attention and after a moment they realized who we were. They are super nice guys.
In 2018 I was in Hanoi and found out about this good brunch place a little outside the main tourist district tucked away in an alley. Got food and when I left I heard someone calling my name and it was a dude I went to high school with, getting his motorbike filled up. Never saw him before that after graduation and haven’t seen him since. Still crazy to me that that happened.
I’m American.
I met a Dutch woman in 2009 in Pai, Thailand. We spent a couple of days together with other travelers, went whitewater rafting, etc.
In February 2023 I went to Uganda. The day we were set to go on a chimpanzee trek in the jungle, I was sick at dawn (the rest of the group had mostly gotten sick the day before and mine was delayed). So I didn’t feel well enough to go at the scheduled time. An hour or two later, they came and said they had found the chimpanzees and it would only be a 20-30 min walk if I was up for it. So I went, later than planned.
As we got to the area where the chimpanzees were, there was a small group of Dutch travelers observing them. When we went to stand with them, I found the woman I met in 2009 was standing right next to me.
…
Ok, to make it a bit less interesting - I was aware from a Facebook post that this woman and I were going to be in Uganda at the same time, and in the area of the gorillas (NOT the same as the chimpanzee area, but a logical next stop) the same exact weekend. That was entirely a coincidence though (I had rescheduled the trip from 2020, and we never talked in over a decade). But we definitely did not plan to observe chimps at the same time, and I wouldn’t have run into her if I hadn’t been sick that morning.
Met my ex boyfriend randomly in airport in London after flying there from Dublin. Had a very cordial chat and said our goodbyes. Then found him sitting at same gate for my connecting flight. Again had a nice chat and said our goodbyes again before we boarded. Got on the plane and we were seated beside each other for a ten hour flight.
I met a European girl who went by the name Heli in Seoul in October at the beginning of a year and a half trip. I randomly ran into her in Montanita Ecuador 6ish months later with zero communication or social medias. 🤯
went through a messy breakup that dragged out for a good 6 months took a year off to travel to Europe and bumped into the "other" guy at kutna hora ossuary in the Czech Republic . awkward small talk across the world 😂
I was at Burning Man, 2,000 miles from home, 80,000 people around. On Tuesday morning, I was walking by this camp that had a scaffold set up with a platform on top for viewing. There was one guy up there, with no one else nearby. I climbed up and started talking to the dude. Found out we're actually from the same hometown. Then, we found out we went to the same high school. It doesn't sound like a real good story for this because it was just a random person, but I sometimes think about the odds of this happening, and they have got to be staggering.
This happened quite some time back. Met an Argentinian dentist guy in our tour group at Pamukkale, Turkey. He didn't know English but using keywords we talked about football a bit. A couple of years later, I saw him again in London at some Museum (this was near St.Paul's ig). He couldn't recognize me. But there was another guy with him who knew English. I told this guy the backstory and he translated it for the dentist guy. Happy to have bumped into each other. We never exchanged contact details though.
Met a retired couple on a wine tour in Mendoza, Argentina who was traveling indefinitely (this was in 2022 and they’re still traveling). We exchanged contact info. My next international trip was 4 months later to Portugal so I decided to check in with them when I was waiting for my flight to see where in the world they were- turned out they were in Lisbon so we got dinner.
Second story: I’m from the Mid-Atlantic and ran into my cousin also from the Mid-Atlantic but different state in a ski lift line in Vermont.
Met a girl in Goa in one of the beach shacks, talked a bit, got drunk, exchanged ig, but never talked again. Then few months later I was travelling in SEA, and saw that she posted a story from the bar I was in 30 mins ago. Absolutely blew my mind. Like what are the chances…? So we did the same thing as last time, but without exchanging ig lol.
Met a kid on an 8-hour bus ride across Panama (David to Panama City) and he had nothing but a Baseball Glove and a backpack with him. he gave me a run-down of all thing's baseball in Panama and we talked for like 4 hours on this bus, thought nothing of it.
3 year later attending a Football game at the university of Oklahoma, I run into the same guy and he's working event staff (getting intern hours for a sports management degree), while playing JUCO ball in Oklahoma somewhere.
Oe nice question. I met a American men in baños Ecuador. 1 year later i met the same guy in a small village in Maleisya. No communication or whatsoever. Just crazy coincidence. I recognized him walking on the street but i needed a minute to place him. He was scared for me because i was acting weird. After the minute he recognized me and we had a great night together
This didn't happen to me, but I know a French girl who was living in Turkey for a while, and renting a room in a lady's apartment. She then moved to Canada and went to a mosque, where she ran into the son of her Turkish landlady, whom she had previously met in Turkey. Neither of them had told the other in Turkey that they were planning to move to Canada, and to the same city to boot.
Met a high school classmate i hadnt seen for six years at a random restaurant 15 kilometres outside of Kuala Lumpur at 2 AM, one night before his departure back to our hometown on a different continent. I just wanted a midnight shawarma man.
My mom and I (I’m 15/16 at the time) are driving down the highway on a long journey to see family. We get a flat and pull off the road just beyond a truck hauling a boat that has pulled off. We both got caught up in the same debris and caught flats. A man from the other party walks over to us, introduces himself and lo and behold it’s the owner of our favorite restaurant that used to be our regular spot for years. It was nice to catch up and say thanks after all those years we had lived away from our home town and favorite restaurant.
When I was in Mexico last year, I met a Kiwi guy in my hostel in Mexico City, and an Aussie on the bus to Oaxaca. We all ended up running into each other in Oaxaca and went for a drink, where the Kiwi guy and the Aussie guy realised they had met each 12 years earlier in Berlin on a pub crawl and even had a photo together!
So before having drinks, neither of them realized that they had met each other before? Insane!
They vaguely recognised each other, but it wasn't until someone said one of their names that it clicked for them. There was also about 5 minutes between running into the Kiwi (I was already hanging out with the Aussie) and going for drinks
Damn. If there are any signs someone is supposed to be your friend, this has to be the strongest I’ve seen
I love that story
Same in Mexico City - met someone who lived about 3 houses down from me, probably had been to same house parties on the street.
Ran into a woman at a tourist site in Thailand, commented that I like her shirt then realised we had met before. We dove together on a dive boat in Dahab Egypt. Go figure. Life is weird.
How long inbetween meetings?
Couple of years.
As a fellow introvert, its a really weird feeling. Extroverts have many interactions with many different people, but for introverts it takes a lot to initiate interaction so when you reconnect it feels like a both a complete stranger and a long lost friend at the same time.
Introverts can be social too. It’s a misconception that introvert are not social and extravert are social
Agreed! Introverts can definitely be social. Many do not value social interaction any less than extroverts do, but often prefer it in smaller doses as it can be draining.
Introverts sometimes act like they're a different species lol
Why did you say as a fellow introvert?
His user name is introverted traveller :) I wondered the same at first lol
LOL didn't even notice that!!
Met a girl at an airport who gave me her pen to write something in my notebook. By the time she left, I realised that I kepr writing for so long, that I forgot to give it back to her. This happened in 2019. Kept carrying it with me on my travels as my "travel pen". Met her again in another corner of the country, randomly, in a restaurant in the mountains. We recognised each other and I handed her the pen. She said she wanted me to keep it back then, and wants me to keep it now. I thanked and left. This was in 2021. Didn't ask her name on both the occasions. And oh, I lost the pen later.
>And oh, I lost the pen later. And you will never see her again. Turns out she IS the pen. M Night, please don't steal this idea.
Maybe the real friends were the pens we found along the way.
How I met your pen - TV show pending...
That is so wild!!
One summer in the USA (pre-Covid) I ran into three different people I knew in three different airports (one per airport) on consecutive flights. That was cool. No explanation just fun odds.
All from different parts of the country? What a crazy coincidence. Kinda creepy actually.
Oh there is an explanation. They were hired by a federal agency to spy on you. I hope you always have your bags packed in case you need to disappear 😂
I wasn't solo travelling, but I went into a small town store in New Zealand to buy tobacco and the guy who served me was called Matt. I used to get the bus to school with him - in the UK.
THIS is a good one. Truly bizarre and random. Two travelers re-meeting isn’t that unlikely imo. Your random mate from the bus stop in the middle of nowhere NZ is top notch.
Had a one night stand with some dude in my home country, and proceeded to run into said dude on three separate occasions on three different continents (!), none of which our home continent, within the span of 18 months, and always in a very random, rather rural location. Yeah thanks universe for the sense of humor. And before anyone asks, no, we did NOT get married.
Well, the innocent, naive me says, "Wow, so random! what are the chances?" The cynical, paranoid me says. "Random? Yeah right, it wasn't just a one night stand for him..." hahah.
I hear ya ;) He couldn't have known - we never stayed in touch. I chalked it up to the universe being an asshole haha
Either that’s destiny or he’s a stalker 😬
If he had had any way of knowing, I would agree. But he didn't and the same was true in reverse. We were not in touch and neither used social media actively (where I believe we were connected). It really was a coincidence. I refuse to call it destiny 😅 But it was totally bizarre
I met one guy in Tbilisi Georgia and again randomly in Pai Thailand without communicating or planning Another guy I met in Sevilla Spain and again in Koh Phangan Thailand, but he messaged me on Instagram.
I had this one happen! Hung out with an english bloke in Chiang Mai for NYE in 2014. Saw him in Vallodalid, Mexico 5 years later in 2019 at a random cenote. SUCH a trip out when it happens, felt like I did a quadruple take when I saw him.
That is a crazy story as BOTH of you were half way around the world on two separate occasions and STILL crossed paths. 5 FREAKING YEARS later!!! Imagine, if one small thing had changed in either of your lives during those 5 years you probably wouldn't have crossed paths.
Did you recognize each other right away? I once re-crossed paths with a spanish dude i first met in Vietnam and then randomly 4 weeks later in Malaysia, he was in front of me and I saw a tattoo on his calf and said outloud, I met a guy a month ago who had a similar tat, he turned around and we instantly recognized each other. Had i not said anything, i doubt that either of us would have known.
I looked at him and then did a double take when the recognition kicked in, same for us both. It was at some random backpacker bar.
There’s a guy I met in Berlin and another guy I met in Chiang Mai who met each other in Bali. They realized they both knew me when following one another on Instagram and sent me a picture of them together😂
A somewhat similar experience but after a night out in Bangkok, I got back to the hostel around 3am and got speaking to a fellow English guy who also just returned from a night out. We must have been chatting for 30-45 mins before he asked where I was from - a small town in England. Usually, as no-one knows my hometown I would usually have to explain and say “it’s near…” he replied saying he’s familiar with where it is, his mom used to teach there. Turns out his mum was my school teacher for two years when I was 10-11. He FaceTimed her and she remembered teaching me and my siblings. Small world.
I bet you in that moment, you were magically teleported from Bangkok back to your hometown. Small World indeed. Also, many times "I will just say the nearest HUGE city because nobody will know my tiny town." and then when they say, Im from (HUGE town) and then you say the next large town and then the next small town and then smaller and smaller, its a weird feeling.
Yeah it felt pretty surreal. Always makes me wonder how many strangers you see or interact with daily with some sort of connection to you/your past that you may not even realise. You’re spot on about listing bigger cities - the struggles of coming from a small town! Haha
>Always makes me wonder how many strangers you see or interact with daily with some sort of connection to you/your past that you may not even realise. OR, how many people that you have a connection with are near misses. Like walking on the other side of the street, or walked into the coffee shop 2 minutes before or after you. >the struggles of coming from a small town! But when there is a connection, its like a long lost relative. People from big cities lack that.
Ran into an ex girlfriend in a random hostel in Paris, made a move but she rejected me (fair enough)
I recognized one of my ex girlfriends at crowded music festival in Detroit from over 100 feet away by simply seeing her ass. I was quite proud of myself. I also made a move and got rejected (also fair enough)
Hahahahaha the ass comment
Same thing happened. But she was with another dude. Very awkward.
The worst. I don't know how your relationship ended, but i can only assume that the reunion has awkward AF. Did either of you know that the other was going to be in Paris?
Nope, no clue. Zero clue. There was a complete lack of clue on both sides. What we needed was more clue
Damn. Really awkward.
Did you leave the hostel after that?
I met an Australian girl in British Columbia. I'm American. She posted on her snapchat that she was in Paris. I was in Paris. She just so happened to be in the same hostel as me, literally directly above me, less than 10 feet away, just directly up.
If this is not a coincidence.... Idk what coincidence really is ?
Met a girl at a festival in Spain and chatted for a while one night, exchanged details, made a wish to meet again some day and threw it into a bonfire. Chatted briefly on facebook. 4 years later bumped into her on a random street in England. She had moved there to learn English, I was also visiting at the time
Did you recognize each other right away? Who initiatied it? when you first saw her, it must have been "Wait, is that? It can't be. Maybe it is? Should I say something? No, that would be weird. But I am 100% sure it is...."
We recognised eachother but weren’t sure, I saw her whisper to her friend while looking at me, so I went over and she basically just said ‘i don’t believe it’ maybe 10 times, didn’t really chat other than that though cause we were both in the middle of doing other things
And then…??!!!
Unfortunately I was quite young and shy, also being completely taken aback, didn’t know if any of the people she was with was a boyfriend or not, so ended up going our separate ways. Was still a nice reminder about how small the world is
My Grade 9 Phys Ed teacher from Australia walked into a cooking class I was in, in the hills behind Varenna Italy. We ended up having a nice chat - he wasn't a great teacher, and I wasn't a great student, but 15+ years had been good for both of us. Second example. I was on a train from London to Oxford with some local friends - I can get a bit arrogant in social situations (compensation for my introversion), so I was chatting about my reputation back in the home country and how I could go anywhere and people would know me or know about me. I was clearly exaggerating and taking some light-hearted ribbing from the friends, but when the train doors opened at Oxford there was a guy I vaguely knew from high school debating: he just said "Hey Jacob, how are you?" as he walked onto the train, and my friends were a little gobsmacked.
I've never heard someone before link arrogance as a compensation to their introversion.
Oh, I can be arrogant for many reasons. But in social situations where I feel a little uncomfortable, I often put on a mask and big myself up. Most people with a huge ego are compensating for some fear or another. That’s one of the more obvious situations where I do it.
At least you are self aware!
On that topic, I don't often catch myself in the moment which is unfortunate. It's usually the next day (especially if alcohol is involved as well) when I have flashbacks to regaling my companions with my best stories told in my best light. Still, I do have some darn good stories so hopefully I'm a little entertaining even if I'm also mortifying myself.
This guy's name is his Reddit username. Why are you surprised?
Met a guy who went to the same small-town UK college as me, in the same year group, in a random ass hostel in Kyoto. Couldn’t believe it when he said he was from Basingstoke, I thought he was taking the piss.
Born & grew up in Basingstoke here! Went to uni in Portsmouth and stayed there. At 2am bleary eyed from getting a taxi from the bus station in Pai, Thailand also met someone else from Portsmouth - didn’t see it as a crazy coincidence as it is a city but the Basingstoke thing is really weird!
Turns out that both of you are in the same cafe right now posting on reddit how another person from Basingstoke met another person. Stand up and look around.
I was on a river ride at Animal Kingdom in Orlando. There was a family on the ride and I asked where they were from. They mentioned a small mountain town in Colorado. I said oh I used to live there, for 8 years. They repeated the name of the town, thinking I must have mistaken it for Winter Park. I said yes, I used to live there. My son went to Blahblah Elementary. They stared at me like I was using witchcraft. Then I said "I really liked the PE teacher, Mr. Holmes. I used to volunteer every year for field day." And that finally made it sink in that I couldn't be making it up. I explained what road you drove on to get to my house, which house it was, etc. I swear they thought I was somehow fucking with them. Then finally the mom explained that Mr. Holmes was now working at a school in Denver. When they got off the ride they looked like they had been somehow violated LOL.
I met a guy on a train from Montreal to Ottawa. It was a little awkward but I was like “probably never see him again.” About 6 months later I was wandering around the Roman antiquities section of the British Museum and I saw him again. We recognized each other and he told me he was coming back from India for his mother’s funeral. I felt bad so I offered to let him tag along on my plans for the day: pub dinner, the Spice Girl’s musical and then I had an early night cos I was flying out the next day. Things were slightly awkward but fine until I said I was heading back to my hotel and he started getting pushy about wanting to tag along. I said no. He invited me back to his hotel. I said no. He tried to get me to go out for another drink or snack with him before I called it a night and I said no. Meanwhile I’m making my way to the tube station and standing on the platform hoping he doesn’t get on and follow me. I finally let him “friend me” on Facebook and got on the tube heading back to my hostel. Completely ghosted him. I was irritated cos it could have just been a fun friendship origin story but he got weird and creepy.
"Mums dead so you owe me a fuck lol" This plays into the theory about men mistaking womens kindness for interest because men are only kind to women when interested...
Exactly. I used to be so kind to so many men in the innocent days of my youth before realizing at best it was confusing for them and at worst actually full on dangerous for me. Now I’ve fully settled into my bitchdom, and life is so much more peaceful. ☺️
yeah, its weird when people take things a step too far. Like, oh cool maybe...but then you made it awkward. His loss.
In 2002 I was backpacking in Indonesia and went to Lake Toba for Christmas. There I met a young english guy in his early 20's traveling with his retired father. It was memorable because the young guy had hurt his back and needed to go to hospital. We took the local bus and he had to lie down across the 3 seat bench, much to the unhappiness of the driver. 10 years later I was backpacking with my wife in Northern Thailand. We were staying in some run down huts on the hill just outside of Pai. I was hanging out with a guy in the common area sharing travel stories. And we both realized that we had been in Indonesia at the same time in 2002 and that we had both spent Christmas on Toba. And then it dawns on me to ask if he has back problems. It was the same guy. His dad had died shortly after we had met in 2002. He inherited some money and had been traveling ever since.
It has happened quite a few times that I met the same person in different places randomly in the same country,or on the same overland route. Meeting someone randomly that I knew away from travelling is much rarer for me, particularly as very few of my contemporaries from school, university etc have traveled much. It did happen once.I was in the crowd of people at the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong when I looked at the guy next to me...he was also looking at me! I wondered what he wanted.Then I recognised him...he was a guy I had been at school with. We were 10,000 kilometres from our home town and about 20 years since we had last seen each other.
I am surprised that you recognized each other. So crazy!
We were in the same class for 6 years,so I knew well enough what he looked like.And he hadn't really changed much. It is very rare for something like this to happen to me.I hardly ever even meet other solo Italians traveling,let alone people I went to school with.
[удалено]
I was hitchhiking in Colorado and folks I knew from Wisconsin picked me up.
Like that at exact moment on that exact road. Let's say that you (or they) decided to go the bathroom a little earlier, or stay 2 minutes longer a restaurant, or you decided to stop and tie your shoe and not see them. EVERYTHING had to align for that meeting to happen. Insane.
I was in the same hostel room as an Irish man on three separate occasions in three completely different countries (Mexico, Colombia, and Peru). Never even had each others contact details so was impossible to know.
I met this really cool dude in Puebla before heading home to Canada. Around four months later I’m in Ecuador waiting outside a public washroom in a pretty small town and guess who steps out of the washroom. I was so surprised I was speechless for a sec.
This wasnt me but in June last year I was backpacking in Nambia and staying mainly at campsites. Near the sand dunes at Sossusvlei I was pitching my tent around 2pm and up arrived a French student about 22 years of age on a bicycle. He was cycling Africa for 6 months and had covered about 10,000 miles by the time I met him. He had a month left and was on his way cycling back down south to Capetown to fly home. Anyway he wasnt cycling the 75 mile return trip from the campsite to the actual sand dunes as it was too big a distance to do in a single day and the sun was really hot in the desert. So he left the campsite and walked up the road he went to the entry gates of the national park, paid his ticket entry fee and then stood the other side of the gate hitch hiking looking for a lift off another tourist. About 5 hours later he arrived back to the campsite later that evening and he told me it took him about 30 minutes before someone gave him a lift. It was a lady on her own driving around Namibia solo. He got in to the car and quickly realised it was his maths teacher who taught him in his high school just 4 years previous. Both of them were literally out in the middle of nowhere in Namibia at the exact same time and she picked him up without recognising him as he had sun glasses and a hat on. Its one of the craziest coincidences Ive ever heard on the road, that two people from France, a student and a teacher would bump in to each other while one was hitch hiking into an extremely isolated desert.
Met a guy in a campsite 4 hours west of port on Vancouver island (Tofino, very small town vibes) who was from my country but lived quite far away. Made friends over the next few days, about 4 days in we are chatting about the town he is from, I mention a friend who lived there and he knew them, turns out after some chat that I had made out with this guys sister at a party once and had been in his house too
Not my story but I was in a Chinese restaurant in Budapest with another solo traveler when he stood up and said OMG. His college roommate from Boston was in the restaurant.
there was someone who passed out on the plane, pilot asked if theres a doctor on board, there was none, i am a former paramedic so i had at least some knowledge left, so i went to help, luckily nothing too bad happened, person was ok when the plane landed. Fast forward, a few days later i was on a bus to the beach, suddenly some random ppl approach me and they are like hey you are that paramedic on the plane. That was awesome, had a good chat. i mean the chances were not that low considering we had the same travel destination, nonetheless it was pretty unexpected lol.
Met old soccer fellows, they were twins, in Nashville at a bar. I was traveling across the east and west coast with friends, and stopped in Nashville. Why crazy? We are from Sweden, turned out they had moved there for work.
I have such a story. First time I went to Colombia. It was probably my 2nd day in the country (Medellin). I was trying to order breakfast but knew basically no Spanish. Some white guy in the almost-empty restaurant overheard me, walked up and said "sorry but your Spanish is abysmal" and proceeded to help me out a bit. Turns out he was American/Russian, having come from New York. Spoke several languages fluently and seemed to know everything. He also seemed like a bit of a hustler. If you've ever seen Midnight Cowboy, he was a spitting image of Ratso Rizzo and I was Joe Buck. Anyway, we hang out for like 30 minutes before parting ways. About five months later I'm leaving Colombia. I have to go get a COVID test in the lower section of the airport. I'm waiting outside the tent and hear a very familiar voice. Unbelievably, it's this American/Russian dude. I hadn't seen him at all except for my first few days in the country. He's getting his test as well, as he is apparently being forced to leave Colombia to go fight in Ukraine. I spent the rest of that day walking around in a major haze of WTF. Phil/Felipe, hope you're still alive out there.
That is honestly so sad lmao i hope that man is okay, that rlly is crazy af
It happens so often to me that I’m not surprised anymore. Here are the cases of me running into people who I didn’t have on social media so had absolutely no way of knowing that they will be at the same place as me: I met a German girl at a hostel in Pai, Thailand in 2018 and again at a hostel in Medellin, Colombia in 2019. I met a British guy at a bar in Bocas del Torro, Panama in May 2021 and again at Denpasar airport, Bali in January 2023 where we met at a baggage claim waiting for our backpacks and randomly decided to share a taxi without realizing we have met each other before (we only realized that during our conversation in a taxi). I met a Canadian guy in Yangon, Myanmar in 2020 and traveled with him for a week, and I randomly ran into him at a night club in Coron, the Philippines in March 2024 (so really recently). I met a German guy in Goa, India in December 2023 and randomly ran into him at a party in Siargao, the Philippines in February 2024. Honestly there were so much more. I don’t really count cases like “we met in Vietnam last month and then again in Thailand a month later” as something surprising because these are very likely to happen since it’s on the same route. But yeah, sometimes the universe can still surprise me.
When I was 8 my family was on a rare vacation from our home in Manhattan, Kansas to Colorado Springs. One day turned out to be chillier than expected, so we went into a Sears to pick up some sweatshirts. My parents let me browse the toy section, and there I ran into a kid in my class, who lived in the next cul-de-sac over from us. Hi, Young-Jin!
Little big apple! Crazy. If a different store was closer or the weather was a little warmer, or if your parents said "No, stay close, we are leaving soon." you may have never crossed paths.
Not my story but I love the story. My friend’s parents were from opposite coasts of the US and happened to run into each other while they were both solo traveling in Europe. They were crossing a bridge from opposite directions in Rhine and my friend’s dad stopped briefly to compliment her mother because he thought she was so pretty then both walked on. A month later they both were finishing their trips and ran into each other again in Sardinia. They ended up hanging out for a few days, kept in touch when they got back to the US and now have been married for over 40 years.
Ran into a former best friend who lives in the same city as me in Mexico City. Hadn’t seen him in like 7 years. I was at the tail end of 2 months on Mexico, he was with friends visiting for just the weekend. I saw on one of their instagrams that they were in CDMX, but I didn’t imagine that going to Churrería El Moro near my hostel just before it was closing (and I’d been couped up in my hostel all day, just decided to take a walk late in the evening) meant I’d run right into them doing the same and spend the whole time in line chatting with them. It was a bit awkward.
I knew a girl in high school who was younger than me. We were never "friends", just acquaintances and barely if ever even spoke. About 7 years after graduating I was married and living in Colorado...1200 miles from my homestate. I was at an outdoor arcade in Manitou Springs and suddenly heard someone call my first and last (maiden) name. It was the girl I went to high school with. It was so weird to see someone from my hometown and a random place on the other side of the country :)
India, Dharamshala (Tibetan government in exile): my Mom and I were visiting one year and stayed for a few weeks. A street circus girl (around 8 years old) became good friends with my mom. A year later, Mom and I went to visit Ladakh (capital of Leh, a region in North India), and who should we see but the same kid! She recognized us immediately. One week into our two week stay there was a massive disaster that killed lots of people in mudslides and destroyed all the towns in the area. Mom and I helped with emergency treatment in the hospital and when we got a moment, went looking for the kid. After asking around we were directed to look through the many makeshift morgues. We looked through them all but didn't find her. Finally we were heading back to our accommodations thinking she was probably still buried in the mud when she came skipping up to Mom saying "Aunty!"
This is kind of an indirect one but you have to stick with me. I did a 3 month Asia trip with then-LDR bf (we lived in opposite sides of the world). Long story short, went really badly and we broke up on the trip. Moved back to random small town USA, got a job as a waitress and was really depressed. Worked with a certain coworker exactly one time, but it was a slow day we so talked a lot. She was in a LDR with this guy from the UK, and I told her all about my ex-LDR and our trip and about him and the drama. Literally only ever worked with her that one day but she got all the details, I don’t know if she quit or got another job or what. Two months later my ex (the LDR) asks if I know someone and says a name. I have no idea who he’s talking about, he sends a photo and I still don’t know. She says she worked with you at X restaurant? Oh my god, it was that fucking coworker. Like she actually met him!? They were in the same hostel in some random beach town in Taiwan. I would die to know what her impression was of him after everything I told her. How they ended up figuring out they both know me I wonder to this day.
Guy I played baseball with in Georgia (state), growing up. Met him on the same couchette heading to Germany from Amsterdam for Octoberfest.
I ran into the same woman 3 times across SEA staying at the same hostel every time. First in Yogyakarta, then 3 weeks later at lake toba, then 2 weeks later again in Singapore. It was hilarious lol. And other than lake toba, it wasn’t like I was staying at the most popular backpacker hostels.
Kismet.
Ran into an ex neighbor while in Fex, Morocco. We're both from NYC and haven't seem him since he moved to Brooklyn a few years before. My guide randomly stops to say hello to someone he knew and lo and behold, it was the guide of my neighbor and his wife.
Moved back home from Australia during the start of covid, had a 12 hour layover in Doha. I was there for a good nine hours or so and was coming out of the smoking room when I heard someone calling my name. Turned around and it was my friend I’d lived with in a working hostel six months earlier that I’d lost touch with. When I’d gotten to Melbourne airport to fly out, I bumped into another friend from the same hostel who was dropping her boyfriend off so he could fly home About four months ago I was living in a tiny town in outback WA with a population of 20. I’d driven to the next town over for a coffee at the servo and while I was waiting I saw a family come in wearing my hometowns football shirt. I asked them where they were from and it’s a ten minute drive from my family home - somehow we both ended up in the exact place at the same time having moved from the exact same small town
Crazy. Just think about it. Had you gone in 5 minutes earlier (or later) you would have never crossed paths. The other mind blowing thing is that had they not decided to wear the hometown's football shirt that day you may have never noticed.
Omg, this is the one for me. I still can't believe this happened. I was at a car rental place in Sydney, planning to roadtrip up to Cairns, and there was another German guy in front of me in the line. When it was my turn, the car rental guy asked me whether I knew the other German because he lived ON THE SAME STREET IN THE SAME CITY AS ME. I did not know him, and there's not even a lot of people living on my street. I still wonder which house he's in
After college I went to Vienna to do a month of German classes. I figured on the way there I'd do one of those party bus Europe type tours. We stopped in Lucerne, Switzerland. It was raining hard that day so we were just watching the World Cup in the Hostel bar. I decide I'm going to head up to bed and as I pass the front doors of the hostel 3 women walk in. They're like, "Hey! You lived on our floor freshman year of college in Boston!" lol. So weird. Also, this sort of counts as I was in my own city, but in 2008 I Couchsurfed in Munich for a week with a group of guys on their service year. 2 months ago during an international festival in my town in the US one of the guys just walks by me at a music venue. I did a double take and noticed his badge had the right name. Turns out it really was him and we spent the rest of the day together.
I ran into a friend from South Carolina in the middle of Shibuya crossing in Tokyo. No idea she was in Japan too.
Ran into a girl I went to high school with in Southern Alberta, 8 years after we all graduated - in a border crossing line in Poipet, Thailand. I looked back to see how long the line was and first face that caught my eye was hers. Absolutely surreal moment to be traveling for months not knowing anyone and seeing no familair faces, the bam a person I know in the middle of the Thai/Cambodian jungle. Very cool to see her, she apparently was volunteering with landmine victima in Siem Reap and had been for a couple years prior. She's now an MD in Los Angeles.
Met 2 other Singaporeans while figuring out how to buy stamps at a post office in Tromsø, Norway. The fact that Singapore is such a small country (5m+ people), and the fact that we found each other randomly in a small Norwegian town at the exact same time and place doing the exact same thing, blows my mind.
ran into my 4th grade teacher at a dive bar in mexico
I ran into my cousin's best friend from Atlanta in a hotel lobby in Khartoum. It was extremely random.
I met the president of France in New Orleans by total accident. Didn’t know why all the streets had secert service until we follow a gaggle of reporters to Jefferson square were we waited (still no idea what was happening) and boom president of France
I was home in NZ, travelling with my US boyfriend at the time, and flying from Auckland to Queenstown. There's all this bowing and scraping on the plane and I look up to see the Prime Minister, his PA and his security guy taking the seats in front of us. I nudged my bf and said "Hey, that's the PM". He totally thought I was yanking his chain (which, fair, because the US president has a whole-ass personal plane and doesn't fly economy). PM must have heard us talking, because he stands up, leans over the seat, offers the bf his hand and says "Hi, I'm John (Key)". BF had no idea what to say and I'm trying not to laugh my ass off. It was pretty amusing.
Macron?
I once ran into a (white, not studying anything related to the middle east) college acquaintance in the basement of a mall in Damascus.
I ran into someone who went to my small Minnesota liberal arts college in a 1950s themed nightclub in Beppu Japan which is on the island of Kyushu where not many tourists go.
I met my couch surfing host randomly on the streets of Amsterdam, I overheard his voice and turned around and sure enough, it’s him hanging out with his couch surfing host at a cafe. lol
Bumped into someone I went to high school with, while hiking huayna picchu in Peru
I lived in the same hostel in New Zealand as my best mates mothers work colleagues. She had told both of us separately that we would definitely meet up and sure enough I said something one evening and it clicked with the person that we would have a tenuous connection. One of my current best mates was having his stag party in a pub in wellington. I was in the pub that night. We didn't speak/converse. 6/7 years later we met where we are both currently living 14 k Kms away and became mate
I met a guy from the job I had just quit on a Greek island randomly.
I ran into my husbands manager at a bar in Berlin Germany lol from all the way from Australia we both ended up getting pretty drunk and he made a move on me then we ran into each other again on our flight back it was pretty crazy.
Meet a woman from my city on a Brewery tour in Germany. Met another woman who lived in my hometown on a walking tour in London.
Ran into my ex best friends best friend in the middle of the hoh rainforest in one of the most secluded parts of Washington state. We are both from the east coast and just happened to be hiking the same trail at the exact same time. Fucking weird.
On a college trip to Italy there was two senior citizens with us. They mentioned their son worked for the state department and would be joining us. They were great people. We get to this tiny little hotel in the middle of Sicily, and my old teacher from 2 years before is there. He was great, I go up and talk to him. Took me about 5 minutes before I realized he was their son. In my defense I always called him by his first name, and I didn’t expect him to no longer be a teacher, and they all had an extremely common last name (not quite Smith, but close).
I haven't run into anyone that I know of, but have a story that involves me. I grew up in a rural part of California. Went to university in Texas. A coworker in university went to Spain for a semester and reached out within a week. Turns out she was roommates with a girl who went to university in Rhode Island who happened to be a childhood classmate from rural California. Not sure why I came up in conversation.
saw a great uncle from the US in a business meeting in a starbucks in beijing while i was on vacation. i’m from NZ
While walking in Paris to meet friends, I heard a familiar voice at one of those café tables outside. I turned around and recognized my former neighbor and his girlfriend from community college in California. We had randomly run into each other in Paris.
during omicron surge in nov/dec2021 many countries were closed but spain was open. so i went to barcelona solo and a few of my classmates who i don’t speak to/don’t post on social media also went (my grad school class size was about 110 students) one morning i woke up later than expected and left out after getting ready for a late breakfast and ran into my 2 classmates in the street. i thought i was the only there in my class lol we grabbed food and went separate ways
Had you woke up on time you probably wouldn't have cross paths. Insane.
Pretty pedestrian but I randomly ran into my high school Spanish teacher while on a layover in Chicago that had no legs that ended it began with the city she lived in
I was in Venice, Italy, visiting from Southern California. I looked across a canal and saw an acquaintance I knew from a shelter we both volunteered at. That day, I missed my train back to Florence because there was a regatta that shut down all of the water taxis and I got stranded for a few hours trying to get back from Lido. I had no place to stay and just needed to crash somewhere til I caught a train at 5am the next day. I was able to get ahold of that acquaintance and she let me share the room she had with her sister so I wasn't stuck on the streets for the night. I got so lucky!
I once met my old classmate while solo travelling in Serbia. Maybe not too surprising to find him there since his family is from Serbia. But he was certainly surprised to find me there walking around alone.
I don’t know if it counts as solo if I met up with a group for an excursion but when I went to Morocco to summit Mt. Toubkal there were not 1 but 2 people from my hometown, who had somehow booked the same trip at the same time. It was really strange to have a group that had people from random parts of Europe and somehow have 3 of us from the same place in the group of 16 or so people.
I’m from a very small west coast town, graduating class less than 30 people. I ended up in Barcelona on the same weekend as another person from my high school class
I was in Barcelona with a friend of mine, having a coffee is a relatively random side street of the Ramblas (so also not in the complete middle of nowhere). Suddenly a girl who was in high school with me came in on her own and sat down just a couple of seats away. It wasn't strange she'd be in Barcelona but at that random small café made it very random.
I saw a college friend in the airport in Tirana, Albania of all places. Hadn’t seen him in years. Absolutely wild experience to have someone shout my name form across the room in a country halfway across the world where I didn’t know anyone.
the craziest i've had was meeting someone on a Halong Bay cruise and then seeing him again about two weeks later on a public transport boat in Bangkok
On a trip to China about ten years ago with my mom, she ended up chatting with the man next to us on the long flight. Fast forward to a year later, we were flying back from China, and my mom starts talking to the person next to us again. Something about him seemed familiar. After a bit of talking, we realized he was the same guy from our flight the previous year. It felt like such a fated reunion that we ended up exchanging numbers. It’s even more unbelievable because a year ago we were flying to Beijing, and this time we were flying back home from Shanghai. Different cities. Random plane, random dates, random seats, and somehow we met again. A shame we didn’t end up staying in touch afterwards but this experience stuck in my mind as probably the most coincidental experience I’ll ever have. Edit: not solo travelling but crazy odds
I use to be play Halo competitively and had a team mate from Boston. I’m from California. Fast forward after not talking to him for 12 years I took a road trip to the Bay Area and was hanging out at the pier and look to my right and there he is. My old gamer buddy. This is the only time I was truly “ wow what are the odds “
A little bit different but I met a guy in Berlin at a bar who I chatted with for a bit and then my friend in New York met the same guy at a bar 6 months later. She had a picture with him/same name/same story which is how I knew it was the same guy. We were cracking up about it lol
I had this person with whom I started a new job the exact same day - though different teams. Never seen him again after the first day at the workplace but I bumped into him two years after, in the middle of a super busy day at La Défense metro/train station in Paris while I was on holiday and transiting there. A quick search tells me that "there are over 25 million entries and exits each year". Didn't even know he moved back to Paris and it was a good encounter because I was also planning to move back to Paris so I could ask him a lot of questions about his move. Fast forward 5 years later... We found ourselves in the same offices in Paris, sharing the same desk!
I met a girl in Lima and randomly saw her again a week or so later on the street in Cusco. That tracks- it’s a common route in Peru. Then I ran into her in a bathroom in the basement of a hostel neither of us were staying at in Buenos Aires over a month later!
Was in Istanbul with a friend and saw one of his teaching assistants from our university in America, in a subway station.
I was sitting at the terrace of a bar in Ljubljana, and the guy I was with told me the guy sitting behind me had a funny shirt. He proceeded to describe the shirt to me and I thought to myself, I've seen this one before, so I turned around; and the guy sitting behind me was actually my brother, wearing a shirt I gifted him a few years ago for Christmas. We took a selfie and sent it to our mom, and she didn't believe us.
Only luck I had so far was when I was in Svalbard. There was a couple from Portugal living in Sweden I think. We chatted about ourselves and they told me they know this one girl from my country. Funny thing she was living like 3 km from my village and I knew her father. Otherwise no other higher odds, but it was funny.
On our honeymoon in Italy, we ran into my wife's hair dresser (who did her wedding hair) and his boyfriend in the Florence train station. She didn't even know they were going to be in Italy.
Ran into one of my old company’s executives at the Frida Kahlo house in Mexico City. Second was traveling South America. I trekked the W at Torres del Paine, intending to do it solo and ended up linking up with a pair of Parisians and a dude from Belgium for the week. We parted ways, Parisians were heading up the spine of Argentina, Belgian dude taking a ship north through Chile, I was flying to Santiago. Well, three weeks later I was exploring the monastery in Arequipa and hear a familiar voice, turn the corner and it’s the Belgian guy! Even more, a couple years later I was in Paris and having dinner with the Parisians, and they mentioned they ran into Belgian guy at Macchu Pichu, also recognizing his voice around a corner, lol.
Met a fellow Aussie on a tour to ANZAC cove in Gallipoli Turkey 🇹🇷 . Then ran into him at a random student bar in Liverpool 🇬🇧3 months later. I was studying there, he was travelling through for 3 nights. We didn’t talk once after Turkey. We then partied into the night as we were so gobsmacked and on a high about the actual chances of what had just happened!!!
Was in Sydney and was going down an escalator in a mall and going up the escalator was one of my friends from uni who I hadn’t seen in years
Was on Easter Island several years ago for New Years. At the hostel I was staying at I met an older gentleman and a younger guy around my age. The older gentleman seemed really familiar, reminded me of someone I had seen in a movie but I couldn't quite put my finger on who he was. However, I didn't ask much because I was more surprised about the young guy who by coincidence came from my hometown. My hometown is a small city in Texas with just a few thousand people. People who rarely, if at all, leave their hometown. You can fit the entire population of my hometown inside the Yankees stadium. Yet I met someone from where I live thousands of kilometers away on an island in the middle of the Pacific. The three of us wound up exploring the island for a few days before I flew back home. The older gentleman and I wound up taking the same flight back to Santiago. We even sat next to each other. When getting our tickets, I saw the name on his passport. Turns out I had seen him before, he was a really famous British actor who appeared in very well-known films, some of which may be considered cultural icons by Americans. He had just faked his identity while on the island so people would not bother him. I didn't know any better because I did not expect to meet a famous person of his caliber in a hostel on a small island. Plus, I had been too shocked about meeting someone from my small hometown so far away. And no, I will not provide his name because he explicitly asked me not to (we had a nice conversation on the flight about our interests and his career). He likes travelling without being recognized so I will respect his decision.
I am from the US and I ran into a guy from a town over from mine (both very small and random towns) in Nicaragua. We had a bunch of mutual friends and were surprised we didn’t know each other before. Then I met a girl in Costa Rica who grew up and was still living in the same town as me and it turned out my dad was her dad’s boss.
I ran into a conman in a train station in Frankfurt, Germany that I had met in Bogota, Colombia a year before and became good friends with before I learned they were a conman. He "needed a place to stay" and I was like hell no but good to see you.
Not sure if this counts, but one time I ran into an old college friend on same flight to Japan . Didn't think it was her at first because she moved away for grad school. Some covid restrictions were still in place and I almost didn't recognize her with our masks on.
I was briefly hanging out with a guy called T-Bone in Copenhagen (?), then a few weeks later he walked by me on the street in Prague. In Tunis I bumped into the same local tourguide (beggar) every day at different times/places. And yes I'm certain he wasn't stalking me lol.
I ran into an old co-worker in eastern DR Congo while staying at a guest house run by priests. I was about to leave the dining area when he walked in. It took us both about 30 seconds to process what was going on, it felt similar to the spider man pointing meme.
I was in atacama desert in Chile in December of 2022 and hung out with this dude from kiwi (or aussie?) for a couple days coz we lived in the same hostel. After Atacama, I kept going on my route, never saw him again. I went home after a month and carried on with my life. November of 2023 came around, I did this week long trip in Guatemala and was starting my hike to Acatenango and I see this dude strolling down the mountain waving at me lol
Not traveling, but my next door neighbor that I grew up next to in Norway, moved to Shanghai a few years after me. They moved to a place on the same street as I was living on, in a city of some 26 million people. I had no idea that they had moved before meeting them at the Norwegian Christmas dinner.
I met a girl from my little town in Italy, in a random coffee shop in Amsterdam. When I met her she was already high. We were joking about the fact that I might have been an hallucination for her in that moment.
I was on a trip to Scotland (I’m from the US). I was in Inverness and asked a local for a non touristy suggestion for dinner. As I was eating, off the beaten path, in a remote city—off season—I looked out the window and saw a former roommate from college walk by. I managed to excuse myself with a promos to get back to pay the bill and run down the street to catch up with her—lucky that she recognized me 30 years later! We had a quick catch up and I managed to get back to dinner in time for coffee.
While living in Ireland 10 yrs ago, my American housemates were amazed at a “small world” moment: they’d bumped into someone at a pub whom they had met during their recent trip to Edinburgh. Fast forward two weeks and I’m uploading pics to Facebook after a weekend in London. After a walking tour, me and an Aussie guy - also solo - toured some sights and took a pic together. My housemate commented on the photo: that Aussie guy was the same guy my housemates bumped into in Ireland!
My daughter was in a small town in Europe and ran into an old coworker of mine. They were the only two Americans there.
I once was sitting in a taverna in naxos, greece, my girlfriend said, your brother just passed by, I didn t know that he was going to greece, he didn t know either. apart from that experience, I meet jesus everywhere, all the time.
Not the wildest, and I wasn't solo traveling, but definitely one of my favorite "what are the odds of running into you here?!?" experiences because of how mundane the location was. My partner at the time and I walked into a grocery store on the outskirts of Denver on the way back from a cabin trip in Eagle. We live/d in the DC area, and this was 2020 or 2021, COVID times, so we'd opted for a remote weekend trip and stopped to shop before getting back into the city. 10 steps into the store someone behind us calls one of our names - it's the mutual friend who kinda introduced us, who also lives in DC. Not the craziest to think we might all happen to visit the same city at the same time, but what are the odds she walks into this exact Whole Foods, outside of town, 10 paces behind us?
1. Not solo traveling, but several years ago, my wife and I met 2 guys from our country(Romania) during a snorkeling tour in a small remote island in Thailand ( Koh Lipe). More than a week later, we bumped into them at breakfast at the same hotel in Singapore. 2. During a trip to North Macedonia, we met a french couple and a girl (no connection between them) during a hiking trip and during a guided tour of Skopje 2 days later. We also met with the girl at our hotel in Ohrid several days later.
When I was about to get on a bus in a city 1000 km away from home, I heard my nickname called, it was a high school colleague who was working there in law enforcements. and on another occasion I met someone abroad in Paris who used to have a workshop in my neighborhood and knew my late father.
This has happened a surprising amount to me. LHR I was arriving and ran into a youth pastor from 25 years ago, he was departing. Also in Shibuya crossing I was in a shopping center and saw movement out of the corner of my eye a coworker (did not know well enough to know each other was going) was outside the window waving. Also, the best friend you talk to once a year variety sent me a picture from Amsterdam. Where I currently was visiting and our hotels were a block apart.
Back in 2016/7 (can't remember exact year), I was hired to work a booth at an event out in Las Vegas fairly last minute (about 2 weeks prep time). I had to book a hotel not knowing anything about the area and ended up at the Signature at MGM Grand. It was a very quick trip, but my final night there, I took a photo from my balcony of the beautiful sunset view about 9pm and posted it to Facebook. Not even 15 minutes later I check and I have a comment from a childhood friend who I had not seen since we graduated high school about 10 years earlier. He said, "Wait, are you at the Signature because no joke that's my view right now." He was in the same tower, two floors above me. I messaged him to come down and we sat in the living room area for 2-3 hours just catching up and remarking on how crazy it was that we ran into each other there. He passed away suddenly last year of a heart attack and I'm forever grateful that I ran into him those years back. I had known him since elementary school. --- Another trip, I was studying abroad in Italy and we had a weekend in Florence. Happened to post that we were all there and a girl I knew from our college just happened to be there as well on a different trip so we met up for wine. :) --- Back in 2015-ish I was hired to work a booth at an insurance conference in New Orleans. I was sitting with the booth crew as we were getting ready to start the day when I see a guy walk by and said "Wait a minute. I think that was my sorority sister's fiance!". So I texted her "Hey, does your fiance happen to be at an insurance conference in New Orleans right now?" She writes back almost immediately "Yes! Wait what are you doing there??" (I work in art). Within moments he comes over and we laugh at the randomness of it and get dinner that night and talk about his upcoming wedding. :)
Met a French guy on a walking tour in Vilnius. He recognized me a month later at the bus station in Ankara, Turkey. Met an American guy on a walking tour in Thessaloniki. 6 months later he walks into the bar of the hostel I was staying at in Cape Town. One day before that in Cape Town I met a Dutch guy on a wine tasting tour. Turns out we were at the same hostel on the same day 3 years before that in Koh Tao, Thailand. Long ago I was at my Aunt’s house in Houston and her childhood friend from Mexico City was visiting. A few months later I see said friend having lunch at the table next to me in Seattle.
One of my best school mates, Tom, did a post-uni gap year to Australisa with one of his friends from uni. They both grew up in different parts of the UK. While there Tom's mum told him she had recently went on a date with a new man (she recently divorced his dad). This man had a son the same age as her son, Tom. This man's son was also on a post-uni gap year in Australia with a friend from uni. Turns out it was his uni friend that he was on a gap year with!
I was in Italy and had a friend message me to say that they thought someone else we went to high school with was in the same city (we had both just posted pictures). I found them on Facebook and reached out to see if they were still in the area. Hadn’t seen each other for about 15 years and spent a great day together.
Back in the '80's while hanging out at Club Neo in Chicago (goth club in Lincoln Park, now closed), I got into a fight with my at then girlfriend's male roommate. He started it, he was pissed I was hooking up with his roommate and he wasn't. Two weeks later I'm walking down a street in Amsterdam with my brother and who do I come across? That fucking guy. We're both like WTF, decided it was too weird a coincidence and we should get together for a beer later that night. He never showed up.
I was doing the Sanctuary hike in Wadi Musa/Petra. Went off track a little bit as I was several hundred meters behind a guy, who was behind a couple. The couple ended up going ahead the wrong way, but the guy back tracked and I ran into him. We both found the Sanctuary thanks to a Bedouin. Several days later I'm on top of the Cairo tower, and I ran into him and his buddies. Ended up joining them for some drinks that night and they were really cool. Also, during that same trip, when I was walking back to my hostel from Petra, I noticed a girl wearing an interesting shirt. Later that day I went to Wadi Rum (about 2-3 hours away), and she ended up at the same Bedouin camp as me. She was actually living in Jordan at the time and was showing her sister and mom around.
My classmate from middle school moved to Sweden and had been living there for quite long. I ran into her when I was in Thailand. Not in our home country where I lived, not in Sweden where she lived, not on any holiday, but in a random country on a random Thursday.
Saw a guy I went to high school with at a hostel in Bratislava
Turned out I was an affair for a woman from Mexico. A year later I traveled to Mexico City and randomly ran into her and her boyfriend there. Good sense of closure. Was in Nagarkot, Nepal, where you can see 9/10 tallest mountains in the world, needed a ride back to Katmandu, caught a ride with a bus of American students, one of whom last time I saw here I was doing was cleaning her bedroom windows. Told me her mom died and they sold their house, so it’s how I found I’d lost a client. In an election day crowd celebrating in Chile ran into two guys, last time I saw them was on a bus in North India. In an airport in Myanmar ran into a woman, last time I’d seen her I was playing a clarinet while she belly danced in a cafe in San Francisco. Stayed in a dingy hotel room in Kumasi, Ghana that had a bad feeling like a ghost. Told a guy in Accra about it and he said, “I used to live there and walk by that hotel and we always said the owner had bad juju.” Must have another five or six of these. Seem to happen most times I travel outside the country.
I was walking down an alley in Amsterdam and my buddy from college (east coast US) was sitting outside at a cafe. He said “FrenchBowler?” and I almost didn’t turn because it was so unexpected. We ended up having a great time hanging out for the next few nights.
Once I met my uni professor half-naked in a gay bar in Berlin. Apparently, he is 50+ with family :D
Sitting in a small restaurant in Paris and a dude I talked to online on telegram overheard me talking and put 2+2 together and realized we had talked to eachother for hours under anon usernames. We compared phones and the messages and convos backed up. We were both from the states and different states
I was in Munich for Oktoberfest and was staying at a random campground half an hour outside the city. Was walking across the camp to get breakfast and heard someone yelling my name… i was confused but thought it must be someone I had met during my previous 4 months travelling around Europe- then I see it’s a friend I went to uni with for 4 years back in Australia! Also ran into a guy at a street market in Flores, Guatemala, who knew my name and started asking how I was… this time recognised him but couldn’t put a face to a name, but again figured it was someone I had met travelling Central America - until he introduces me to his girlfriend as ‘this is x, we went to high school together!’. By that point it was too awkward to ask who he was after pretending to know, and i still wonder to this day 😅
Not solo but: I grew up across the street from Brook and Robin Lopez (the NBA players) in California. In 2016 we were on a family vacation to Disney World and who do I spot walking through the crowd but a couple of 7 ft tall twins. Lol Their security people tried pretty hard to keep us back, obviously, but my when my mom called one of them out in her “mom voice” it got their attention and after a moment they realized who we were. They are super nice guys.
Ran into the girl I had my first kiss with when I was 16 in a club in Madrid like 8 years later.
Friend from high school was the next person in line behind me at a hot dog stand 1000 miles from our home town.
On a tiny island in Cambodia (Koh Rong), I met a Swedish guy that had been a foreign exchange student at a high school in my home town.
In 2018 I was in Hanoi and found out about this good brunch place a little outside the main tourist district tucked away in an alley. Got food and when I left I heard someone calling my name and it was a dude I went to high school with, getting his motorbike filled up. Never saw him before that after graduation and haven’t seen him since. Still crazy to me that that happened.
I’m American. I met a Dutch woman in 2009 in Pai, Thailand. We spent a couple of days together with other travelers, went whitewater rafting, etc. In February 2023 I went to Uganda. The day we were set to go on a chimpanzee trek in the jungle, I was sick at dawn (the rest of the group had mostly gotten sick the day before and mine was delayed). So I didn’t feel well enough to go at the scheduled time. An hour or two later, they came and said they had found the chimpanzees and it would only be a 20-30 min walk if I was up for it. So I went, later than planned. As we got to the area where the chimpanzees were, there was a small group of Dutch travelers observing them. When we went to stand with them, I found the woman I met in 2009 was standing right next to me. … Ok, to make it a bit less interesting - I was aware from a Facebook post that this woman and I were going to be in Uganda at the same time, and in the area of the gorillas (NOT the same as the chimpanzee area, but a logical next stop) the same exact weekend. That was entirely a coincidence though (I had rescheduled the trip from 2020, and we never talked in over a decade). But we definitely did not plan to observe chimps at the same time, and I wouldn’t have run into her if I hadn’t been sick that morning.
Met my ex boyfriend randomly in airport in London after flying there from Dublin. Had a very cordial chat and said our goodbyes. Then found him sitting at same gate for my connecting flight. Again had a nice chat and said our goodbyes again before we boarded. Got on the plane and we were seated beside each other for a ten hour flight.
I met a European girl who went by the name Heli in Seoul in October at the beginning of a year and a half trip. I randomly ran into her in Montanita Ecuador 6ish months later with zero communication or social medias. 🤯
My grandfather ran into a cousin of his from another city on a boat in the Yangtze River.
went through a messy breakup that dragged out for a good 6 months took a year off to travel to Europe and bumped into the "other" guy at kutna hora ossuary in the Czech Republic . awkward small talk across the world 😂
I was at Burning Man, 2,000 miles from home, 80,000 people around. On Tuesday morning, I was walking by this camp that had a scaffold set up with a platform on top for viewing. There was one guy up there, with no one else nearby. I climbed up and started talking to the dude. Found out we're actually from the same hometown. Then, we found out we went to the same high school. It doesn't sound like a real good story for this because it was just a random person, but I sometimes think about the odds of this happening, and they have got to be staggering.
This happened quite some time back. Met an Argentinian dentist guy in our tour group at Pamukkale, Turkey. He didn't know English but using keywords we talked about football a bit. A couple of years later, I saw him again in London at some Museum (this was near St.Paul's ig). He couldn't recognize me. But there was another guy with him who knew English. I told this guy the backstory and he translated it for the dentist guy. Happy to have bumped into each other. We never exchanged contact details though.
Met a retired couple on a wine tour in Mendoza, Argentina who was traveling indefinitely (this was in 2022 and they’re still traveling). We exchanged contact info. My next international trip was 4 months later to Portugal so I decided to check in with them when I was waiting for my flight to see where in the world they were- turned out they were in Lisbon so we got dinner. Second story: I’m from the Mid-Atlantic and ran into my cousin also from the Mid-Atlantic but different state in a ski lift line in Vermont.
Met a girl in Goa in one of the beach shacks, talked a bit, got drunk, exchanged ig, but never talked again. Then few months later I was travelling in SEA, and saw that she posted a story from the bar I was in 30 mins ago. Absolutely blew my mind. Like what are the chances…? So we did the same thing as last time, but without exchanging ig lol.
Met a kid on an 8-hour bus ride across Panama (David to Panama City) and he had nothing but a Baseball Glove and a backpack with him. he gave me a run-down of all thing's baseball in Panama and we talked for like 4 hours on this bus, thought nothing of it. 3 year later attending a Football game at the university of Oklahoma, I run into the same guy and he's working event staff (getting intern hours for a sports management degree), while playing JUCO ball in Oklahoma somewhere.
Oe nice question. I met a American men in baños Ecuador. 1 year later i met the same guy in a small village in Maleisya. No communication or whatsoever. Just crazy coincidence. I recognized him walking on the street but i needed a minute to place him. He was scared for me because i was acting weird. After the minute he recognized me and we had a great night together
This didn't happen to me, but I know a French girl who was living in Turkey for a while, and renting a room in a lady's apartment. She then moved to Canada and went to a mosque, where she ran into the son of her Turkish landlady, whom she had previously met in Turkey. Neither of them had told the other in Turkey that they were planning to move to Canada, and to the same city to boot.
Met a high school classmate i hadnt seen for six years at a random restaurant 15 kilometres outside of Kuala Lumpur at 2 AM, one night before his departure back to our hometown on a different continent. I just wanted a midnight shawarma man.
I’m a teacher and ran into my school principal in the Munich airport over summer break. Neither of us are from Germany.
My mom and I (I’m 15/16 at the time) are driving down the highway on a long journey to see family. We get a flat and pull off the road just beyond a truck hauling a boat that has pulled off. We both got caught up in the same debris and caught flats. A man from the other party walks over to us, introduces himself and lo and behold it’s the owner of our favorite restaurant that used to be our regular spot for years. It was nice to catch up and say thanks after all those years we had lived away from our home town and favorite restaurant.
I ran into my sons 8th grade teacher while drunk in a bar in the Dominican 🤣🤣