Strange travel coincedences!

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The oddest thing about my trip actually only happened at the end of it. When I flew over, I was sitting next to a fairly quiet older man, we spoke only briefly when he wanted to stretch his legs once or twice (I always book an aisle seat whenever I can and he was in the middle of the row, thus). On my way back, who should be sitting right next to me again but the same feller -- he actually recognized me first! We were duly amazed and amused, and vowed that if it happened the third time clearly it was conspiracy. Felt like a bad romantic comedy, except I had no sense of affection for the other feller and I trust he felt the same.

So what's the oddest thing like that, or anything else equally odd, that's happened to you? (The next oddest but not as surprising would be that I'd run into a former classmate of mine from grad school at a performance at London's Globe Theatre reconstruction some three years back.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 October 2003 03:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Ran into a high school classmate of mine at the trainstation near Venice. She was leaving and we were arriving. I hadn't seen her in two years, despite the fact she lived less than a half a mile from me. Funny, I guess.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 20 October 2003 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Met a woman at a BBQ, noticed her accent, got to talking... turns out she lived next door to me in another country when we were kids, but we never actually met.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 20 October 2003 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

before going to nyc last fall, i hoped that i would run into someone there that i knew from somewhere else. sure enough, i saw my old boss's wife and her sister near the wtc site. and i recognized her out of a large crowd, from the back of her head. we were walking from brooklyn to the staten isl ferry. it's weird to think about the timing, of when you leave the apartment, walking distance to the run-in, etc. working out perfectly

though i suppose nyc is about the best place in the world to run into random acquaintances. but that kind of stuff never happens to me. probably the rarely-leaving-the-house thing

― ron (ron), Monday, 20 October 2003 04:18 (twenty-one years ago)

in Seattle when I was 10 or something my parents ran into one of the Zabars (Stanley, I think) in a restaurant. how they knew the Zabar I'm not sure, but assume it's just face-recognition from being in the store (how they now quasi-know the other one).

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 20 October 2003 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

An old friend of mine I don't really see anymore used to live round the corner from me in another group house when we were all in Canberra. I moved to Melbourne and some time later he did too (hell, I think we all did).

I have bumped into him going either to or from Canberra now on a train, the bus (twice!) and a plane. And it wasn't always obvious times like start of long weekends or xmas either. WEIRD.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 20 October 2003 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My godmother is a purser on United Airlines, so I guess it wasn't too weird that she should be on the flight I took to NYC. What *was* weird was that her entire family were on the same flight as well!

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 20 October 2003 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The best one, at least for me, is when I was flying back from my first spell living in London. My friend Margaret had also been living here but both of us were phoneless and didn't know where to begin looking for each other. Turned out we were on the same flight back and she'd just come from recording the debut single of her first band, Moonshake. It sounded great on its very first play at 35000 feet.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 20 October 2003 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Shared a room at a hostel w/ an Estonian guy in Vienna, ran into him at the train station in Prague (he had taken the same train from Vienna), then the next day saw him at the airport in Prague. I felt like some kind of stalker.

― fletrejet, Monday, 20 October 2003 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

when traveling from arizona to indiana with my family when I was a teen, ran into a co-worker of my mom's at a random missouri rest stop.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 20 October 2003 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I've mentioned this before here: I was on holiday in Paris about a dozen years ago, and at the Musee d'Orsay when I heard someone shout 'Martin'. I ignored it, until it was repeated much closer - it was my pal and rising comic writing star Grant Morrison.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 20 October 2003 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I met a kid called 'Advice' on the island of Chizimulu in Lake Malawi. He advised me not to swim in the lake because of crocodiles. Later that day I saw a crocodile kill a woman and her baby as she washed in the lake.

Not sure if you could call this a coincidence, but thought I'd add it anyway.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 20 October 2003 12:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i was in the minneapolis airport and a guy in a cowboy hat called out 'colette from kalamazoo?' it was dan, a guy i'd been in art classes with (and had a HUGE crush on) in middle and high school. he was on his honeymoon (darn) on his way to a ranch in montana or something, and i was living in ann arbor at the time. weird that we ran into each other there, rather than one of the two 'cool' coffee shops we both frequent in kalamazoo...

― colette (a2lette), Monday, 20 October 2003 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Suzy, "Secondhand Clothes"? Best thing she ever did - fantastic tune. I was once dead chuffed to talk to her for 45 minutes after a Moonshake show in Windsor. I had quite the crush on her at the time.

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 20 October 2003 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I have run into the same university colleague 3 times in the past 7 years in Basingstoke station, Glasgow airport and Waterloo station. There's roughly a 2 year gap between random meetings so I'm due another in the next few months.

― robster (robster), Monday, 20 October 2003 13:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I took a final for my last grad course in 1996, as I handed in my examination, the prof made small talk with me.

MB: Where are you planning on working for the summer?
Me: Oh I've been working, I plan on taking a couple months off to travel, actually.
MB: Oh? Where are you going?
Me: Driving the USA, and 2 months in Europe.
MB: Ah, my wife and I spend our summers in Italy. (He was Italian).
Me: Well maybe I'll see you there!

Flashforward about 9-10 weeks, I was staying at an apartment in Rome some childhood friends of mine (2 sisters from Memphis) were sharing. I take them out to dinner to thank them for hosting me and on our way back around 11pm, a little tipsy from red wine we're standing about 30 feet down an alley from a medium sized street in West Rome, waiting for my friend Misty to unlook the door and wouldn't you know, I get tapped on the shoulder and there MB is with his wife saying "I thought that was you!" There apartment was a few buildings down.

Being tipsy on red wine adds to the dream like quality of memory.

That story with Ned about recognizing people on flights happens to me all the time. Usually it's just weekend or business flights though so not as coincidental.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:11 (twenty-one years ago)

suzy: you're friends with Margaret Fiedler? Thats very cool. I love Moonshake :)

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

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