I spent a semester in college at the University of Melbourne. When the term was over, I took advantage of my surroundings and traveled around Australia. I was well aware that Australia was filled with Canadians, strengthening the cultural ties of the commonwealth, but I hadn't expected so many 'small world' encounters. In the small town of Noosa Heads, my hostel had sent a car to pick me up at the bus station. The driver had such a familiar accent that I had to ask, where was he from? It turned out that he came from the same small town in the prairies where one of my good friends from college had grown up. Not surprisingly, the two had been best friends growing up.

Moving on to Darwin, I checked in to a small, flea-bag hostel with co-ed dorms. Four beds in the room and two of the others were occupied by guys from my small hometown of Nepean, Ontario. It was a Canadian-style piss-up that night!

Posted By Jen on May 17, 2007, 1:19 PM

When I was eighteen my friend and I backpacked around Europe for a month to the usual touristy cities. Without ever discussing plans with a few other young travelers we'd seen in Koln, Germany, we saw them two cities later in Brussels! We thought that was pretty random.

Posted By C. Williams on May 17, 2007, 4:04 PM

I went to Disney World when I was 12 and I saw a classmate from my previous grade school in Wisconsin. I'm going to Disney World again this summer (at age 36)....perhaps I'll run into her again!

Posted By Lisa on May 17, 2007, 5:28 PM

While in Whistler for a weekend, I ran into a high school friend I hadn't seen in over six years. With so many bars in town, it was quite a coincidence that we ran into each other that night.

Posted By Josh on May 18, 2007, 12:56 PM

I was crossing the street in Toronto one evening when the policeman directing traffic gave me a strange look. It took me a second, but as I was crossing I said, "Greg?" and he nodded. Greg and I made friends at a campground in Maryland when we were about 10 to 12 years old. We only knew each other for two days, but I guess we made an impression on each other.

Posted By jenkatz on May 18, 2007, 1:54 PM

While on vacation in Disney, my parents (from NY) made plans to meet up with hometown friends of theirs also on vacation. While in one of those twist-turny lines for a ride at the magic kingdom, my Mom's friend said, "isn't that your brother-in-law a few rows ahead in line?" And it was! Unknown to either party, my Aunt and Uncle (who live in a PA) were also at Disney and standing in line for the same ride! The more amazing part was my parents friend who spotted my Aunt and Uncle had only met them twice before!

Posted By Allie on May 18, 2007, 3:17 PM

During the mid-60's I was in the USAF, stationed at RAF Alconbury, about an hour north of London. One year I visited Trafalgar Square for the New Year's Eve celebration. After midnight had passed I, and hundreds of others, queued for the buses now running on a holiday schedule. Hearing what I believed was American English being spoken by people further down my queue, I inquired if they were from the States. A woman responded that she was from New Jersey. I responded that I was too. She asked if I'd heard of Passaic. I told her I'd been born there and the streets' intersection where we'd lived until moving just before my eleventh birthday. She looked at me and says,"You're Lil and Leo's son". She'd lived around the corner over ten years earlier.

Posted By Stewart on May 21, 2007, 3:28 AM

I was in Hawaii for an annual tour with the Georgia Air National Guard, and couple of friends and I decided to take a dinner cruise. The seas were a bit rough and many of the people on the boat got seasick, so the dining room was not very crowded. As I went up to the bar to order a drink, I noticed a woman that looked somehow familiar to me. It took a minute, but it finally came to me. She had been my 11th grade English teacher in the Florida high school I went to about 16 years earlier. She had failed me too... She didn't really remember me (which is probably a good thing), but she was happy to know that I had made something of myself.

Posted By Rick on May 21, 2007, 6:19 AM

Home Town---Toccoa, GA.
While living in Afghanistan in the 60's, I met 2 men who had trained as paratroopers during WW 2 in Toccoa! Later, while traveling in Nepal, I met a minister who had been the music minister in Toccoa! (We are not missionaries.)
Age--77 and still going! Ann

Posted By Ann on May 21, 2007, 6:47 AM

One Columbus Day weekend in college, I went from Houston to New Orleans with my roommates. While sitting in Pat O'Brien's piano bar, a young man at the next table leaned over and asked if I was the Piper he knew. We had been friends in 7th grade in Maryland and I had moved away at the end of that school year. He also was just visiting New Orleans for the weekend.

Posted By Piper on May 21, 2007, 7:08 AM

I had just brought our newborn home from a New Jersey hospital when I received a phone call from a friend in Australia. He called to congratulate me. I asked how he heard the news. He told me that his father was walking down the street in Bangkok, and his father had bumped into a mutual friend of ours from Germany. Our friend from Germany told his dad the news and then his dad called our Australian friend who then called me. It just amazed me that people could be discussing my happiness thousands of miles away!

Posted By Gloria on May 21, 2007, 7:29 AM

When I was in grade school in Illinois our family took a vacation to the Roayal Gorge in Colorado. While crossing the bridge there we ran into our insurance agent from back home and his kids. We all went to school together.

Posted By SHughes on May 21, 2007, 7:38 AM

My boyfriend and I live and New York and during our first visit to Buenos Aires several years ago, we took one of his soccer pals, who was Argentine, up on his offer to ring his sister who lived there. We ended up making plans for dinner. She came to pick us up at our hotel and I asked where she learned to speak English so well. She explained that her father was American, and her mother was Argentine. They met in Paris, moved to Switzerland, had her older sister, then went to Hong Kong, where she and her brother Eliot were born. Then to the States where they lived for six years before returning to Buenos Aires. She then said that her dad had grown up in South Dakota, at which point my jaw dropped as I had also grown up in South Dakota. We were both quite surprised and after a bit more talking we discovered her uncle was my 9th grade health teacher. Still the best small world story I know.

Posted By Leah on May 21, 2007, 8:26 AM

I went back to my small hometown for an all school class reunion. I got to the reunion and checked in and a couple walked up to me and asked if I went to church at First Baptist Canyon Lake. I said yes and we started talking. He graduated from the same high school four or five years before I did. When he lived in that area one of the couples best friends were my cousin and her family. It's a small world.

Posted By Sandra Stewart on May 21, 2007, 8:29 AM

While on a cruise a couple of years ago, we decided to do a riverboat/nature spotting ride in Belize. Passengers included people from two different ships. Chatting in between the guide's descriptions, another couple, who were from Arizona, asked where we were from. I told them a small town in western MD, called Walkersville. Turns out they knew it well, having cousins in a neighboring town called Mt Airy--and even more surprising, turns out I had worked with one of the cousins on a local committee to help enlarge a local park!

Posted By Linda on May 21, 2007, 8:35 AM

One year my husband had a meeting in Washington, D.C. and we went to the Air and Space Museum and there I ran into a teacher and students from the school were I worked. I knew she was going to be in DC but she didn't know I was. There were thousands of students at the mueseum and for our paths to cross was something.

Posted By Rita Zepper on May 21, 2007, 8:48 AM

My Uncle & his family were on a driving trip, visiting national parks out west. My then 10-year-old cousin enjoyed signing them in at all the visitor center guest books. At one particularly obscure park in Utah, he said, "hey dad, there was a guy with our last name here today". When my uncle checked, it was the name of his long-estranged father, whom my uncle hadn't seen since his parents divorced when he was only 3. They asked the ranger on duty when that person had been there (it was dated the same day), and the ranger said, "oh, he left about 10 minutes before you arrived, asked for directions to Dead Horse Point". So they quickly drove there themselves, and had a family reconciliation. This was nearly 30 years ago, and it still gives me shivers!

Posted By Tammy Fine on May 21, 2007, 9:05 AM

We are Australians now living in Florida. In 1974 we were in a restaurant in Southern England when I heard what I thought was an Australian accent. The man was English, but had lived with Australians in Montreal in the early 1960s. We had lived in an apartment in Montreal in 1958 - the same one he occupied in 1960!!!

Posted By Jean Roberts on May 21, 2007, 9:06 AM

On a ski vacation to Utah's massive Canyons ski resort, my husband and I bypassed the endless line to board the gondola by entering the "singles" lane. When our turn came, there were 2 seats available, joining a party of 4, so we piled in. Glancing up at the young woman opposite me, I saw her eyes widen through her goggles. We both tore off goggles at the same time and exclaimed each others' name in disbelief -- she was the daughter of my closest friend when I had lived in California. I'd since married and moved to Pennsylvania; she'd grown up, married and moved to Oregon. We hadn't seen each other in years, and it was pure chance that the converging lines would place us in the same gondola, each of us a thousand miles from home.

Posted By Tammy on May 21, 2007, 9:12 AM

My husband and I took a two-week tour of Egypt for our honeymoon 10 years ago. Our tour group had 32 people. Two days into the trip another couple noticed we were from Erie, PA, from a t-shirt my husband was wearing. They asked us if we knew the other couple from Erie taking the same tour! We didn't, but that night the other woman from Erie broke her arm and I broke my camera. She lent me her camera and when we got home I had duplicate photos printed for her. A year later they sent us a two hour video of the trip. Watching it was like taking the trip all over again. Funny thing - we've never seen or talked to them since.

Posted By Susan Moyer on May 21, 2007, 9:19 AM

I actually have two small world encounters. The first happened when I was eighteen years old and on my first trip to Paris. I was alone and riding the Metro, when a very drunk man sat down next to me and began to put his hands all over me mumbling, and I didn't understand anything that he said (he was from Corsica). I yelled at him and tried pushing him away, but he kept getting closer & closer. The young man in the seat in front of me turned around & told him that I was "his girlfriend and to leave me alone." He motioned for me to come and sit next to him (in English). When the young man looked up at me we both realized that he had been my camp counselor at a YMCA camp in Rhode Island years before. We spent the rest of the ride talking about the good times we had had years before which helped me to forgot about the "incident on the Metro."

Posted By Zipporah Sandler on May 21, 2007, 9:19 AM

Years ago when I was a child my family was visiting our paternal grandparents in Albany, NY. We took a day trip up to Lake George and walking around a corner, I saw my mother's sister from Philadelphia.
When my eldest child was 6 we went to Disney World. Standing in line ahead of us at Dumbo's ride was my cousin and her family.
At a souvenir store in Cancun we ran into my husband's golf partner and his family. We were there on one cruise ship and they were on another.
A high school friend of mine told me of standing at the top of Mt. Vesuvius and seeing her next door neighbor.

Posted By Karen S on May 21, 2007, 9:30 AM

We had lived in the Washington DC area for 14 years, in the suburb of Prince William County. Two years after our son graduated from high school we decided to move to a small town (28,000 people - this is small when you move from DC!) across the country in central Washington State. Our son came with us, planning on continuing his education on the west coast. During the summer, he volunteered to work on a Habitat for Humanity project in our new home town. While working for Habitat, he met a young woman that he befriended. As they exchanged stories about where they were from and why they were here, it turned out that not only was she from Prince William County, but had sat behind him in the Prince William County Band for a season (she plays the French Horn and he plays the Clarinet). He never turned around and got to know her in band; he had to travel 3,000 miles to meet her!

Posted By Beth on May 21, 2007, 9:41 AM

While traveling through the Karakoram Mountains of northern Pakistan I met a Swiss traveler, and we spent a day hiking past glaciers and over long suspension footbridges. Five months later I was on a new journey, exploring the desert of Wadi Rum in Jordan when we unexpectantly bumped into each other again. Two very different, distant places!

Posted By Matt Ebiner on May 21, 2007, 9:48 AM

While boarding a flight home from Tulsa to Cleveland I sat down next to woman who I recognized but could not place why. She also recognized me and we took ten minutes narrowing down jobs, hometowns, spouses--finally remembering that we had spent a semester in France together on a college program 15 years earlier! We had a hilarious conversation reminiscing about our program.

Posted By Janna on May 21, 2007, 10:10 AM

Midway Island - yes, the one in the WWII battle - is now Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and in 2004 our son-in-law was the refuge manager. We were able to travel with them from Honolulu on the chartered 15 passenger plane, along with the mail and groceries. The pilot was in the cabin visiting and invited my husband to go sit in the cockpit for awhile. He gladly took the pilot's seat, put on the headphones and in the ensuing conversation with the co-pilot, found out that they had both been stationed at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota in the 54th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and knew some of the same pilots and navigators. We are from Wisconsin!

Posted By Nenn Stuve on May 21, 2007, 10:40 AM

When I was in college, I went on a trip that included Miami and Disney World. As we were not old enough to rent a car, we jumped aboard a Greyhound bus for that slow ride that was twice as long as it should be. At one of the rest stops, I heard a familiar voice and got a good look at a couple sitting a few rows in front of us. It turns out that it was my ex-boyfriend from our tiny high school (there were less than 50 people in my class). He now had a scruffy beard and long hair. I could have walked right into him and not have known it was him if I hadn't heard him speak.

Posted By Jill on May 21, 2007, 10:43 AM

I (a NY'er) went to California for a business trip & met a wonderful woman. We emailed & spoke on the phone quite often & eventually did some traveling together.
Then 2 years later, she moved to NY & we decided to get married. So the time came to find an officiant for the ceremony & we have very different religious backgrounds, so I was quite concerned. Until she was in one of her college classes & an older woman spke up and said "I remember you from California years and years ago". She turned out to be the pastor's wife (the same pastor who was the head of her California church when she was young) and they moved to NY, about 10 miles from my house, a while ago. A year later he married us...
Small world.....

Posted By Abram on May 21, 2007, 10:44 AM

I was travelling in France with the lady who'd been my college French professor; we'd spent the night in a fairly nasty little 2-star back-street hotel in Nice, and were eating in the breakfast room when I happened to look over at another young woman [which I also was at the time] who was eating alone. I said to my companion, "I could SWEAR I went to high school with that girl!" "Madame" said to me,"You should go say hello to her, then." I finally decided to see if I was right -- after all, high school (as traumatic as it had been) was long ago, and this girl wouldn't beat me up in public, would she? So I walked over and said, "Are you Elizabeth X?" She replied affirmatively, and called me by name too! We had a pleasant reunion and couldn't believe that, 5 years after last seeing each other, we managed to run into each other again in Nice, France! (Later on that same day, I ran into another, even more distant acquaintance at the train station. Nice must be the place for reunions!)

Posted By frogprof on May 21, 2007, 10:49 AM

My husband and I were in Honolulu, Hawaii on a summer vacation when we ran into a couple while we were shopping. It was on a crowded street downtown. We had attended their wedding in San Diego just the week before!

Posted By Grace Rice on May 21, 2007, 10:51 AM

Our first full day in Seoul was Sunday, so we set off in search of the Cathedral in downtown Seoul. This was our first experience with the extensive and simply amazing Seoul Subway. We found our destination without any trouble (thanks in part to an elderly Korean gentleman in the subway) arriving more than 30 minutes before the English Mass in the lower chapel. The cathedral has 5 masses every Sunday in the main church; the smallest is the English language service with about 50 people in attendance. It was quite interesting to see the mix of a few Koreans along with English, Australians, Africans, Americans and the priest from New Zealand. With the exception of the Koreans the congregation was a fascinating cross section of colonial England.

After mass was over we met a Korean woman from Chicago now living in Seoul following her career. Her parents who emigrated to the U.S. from Korea still live in Chicago, as does her brother. Additionally, her parents helped to start the Korean mission parish in our diocese. Yet more remarkable is that we have mutual acquaintances from our own parish. Being nearly 7,000 miles from home it�s still a small world.

Posted By Randy on May 21, 2007, 11:04 AM

Last year a director from our local theatre asked me to costume her show. I hedged her off and said I needed to think about it. I ignored her emails hoping she would find someone else. A few months later I traveled from Salem, OR to Phoenix, AZ. I was bumbling around Phoenix and stopped to get a burger. As I was walking into the restaurant, there was the director and her son eating their burgers, also on spring break in Phoenix. I took it as a sign of needing to deal with her request, so we talked, I costumed her show and it was a huge success.

Posted By lorraine on May 21, 2007, 11:07 AM

I was in Budapest and had just been attempting to use a pay phone to call an arriving friend at our hotel. After dumping more than three euros of change into the phone and getting nowhere, I was frustrated so I gave up and decided to walk back to the hotel. As I was walking I saw a women talking on a cell phone. I looked at her and the ease of her phone with great jealousy. Suddenly I took a closer look and saw that it was Katie Callahan, an old friend from high school who I hadn't seen in almost 20 years! She practically dropped the phone in surprise. I ended up borrowing her phone to call my friend, who had also gone to high school with us and we all went out and caught up at an elegant hotel overlooking the Danube.

It reminds me to always look at people when I am walking around, no matter how far away I am from home!

Posted By Cordelia Persen on May 21, 2007, 11:09 AM

I taught 1st, 2nd & 3rd grades for 38 years. In the early 1970s, my husband and I were walking through the Heathrow Airport, waiting for our midnight charter flight, when this childish voice behind me said, "Hi, Mrs. Corley." I turned around and it was one of my 2nd grade students. She and her family had been visiting family in Hungary. Truly, a teacher must be on her best behavior even 1/2 a world away!

Posted By Esther Corley on May 21, 2007, 11:33 AM

I teach in a high school in Portland, Oregon so it's quite common to bump into current and former students in and around the greater Portland area. But nothing topped my "small world" experience than what happened a few years ago. My partner, Ginger,and I were strolling in Manarola, Italy, one of the five small towns that make up the Cinque Terre region. We were busy looking at the local scenery when suddenly I heard, "Geno!" Few call me by my nickname, so I immediately turned around. It was not one, but two former students, along with a third woman who was dating one of my former soccer players. They had just completed a term in France and were in the process of wandering around Europe. Truly a small world.

Posted By Gene Solomon on May 21, 2007, 11:39 AM

I was standing in line for a screening at the Santa Fe Film Festival in December 2006, and struck up a conversation with a couple next to me. I asked where they were from; they said New York, and I said I was also from New York and had moved to Santa Fe a few years ago. "We're not from the city," they said, "We're from a small town upstate; you probably haven't heard of it." It turned out they were from Chautauqua, where my family had spent a summer when I was 10 years old.(The town attracts a lot of summer visitors because of its recreational and cultural activities.) What are the chances of meeting someone from that town? Pretty slim, I'd say. Oddly enough, my parents had a small-world encounter in Chautauqua that summer. We were walking through town when we ran into a couple my parents had been friendly with, but hadn't been in touch with for a while. This couple was also vacationing in Chautauqua. My parents started socializing with them again after that chance meeting.

Posted By Regina on May 21, 2007, 11:47 AM

Two amazing re-encounters on the same trip! I went on a 4 month solo backpacking trip through Fiji, New Zealand, Australia & Bali, in that order. On the first leg of the journey I met a fellow Californian, Doreen, while in Fiji. We got along well and ended up traveling together for a month through New Zealand. We had different travel plans after that country and continued on with our solo itineraries. Doreen was on her way to Thailand to have her wedding dress custom made, and meet up with her fiance. At the end of my trip I was staying in a small, remote bungalow in Candidasa, Bali. I came out to sit on the veranda for breakfast in the morning, and sitting in front of the bungalow next door was Doreen! Our paths had crossed again.

Then, on my very last night before flying back to California from Bali, I was walking down a crowded street in the busy, touristy Kuta Beach area. From about 100 yards away, I couldn't believe my eyes; a very good friend from highschool, who I had not seen or had contact with in over 10 years was walking straight towards me. We both broke into huge smiles and practically ran to greet eachother. It was a wonderful and amazing coincidence and rekindled our friendship after all those years. We learned that we were both adventurous world travelers, who didn't mind going it alone!

Posted By Deseret on May 21, 2007, 11:52 AM

Backpacking through Europe many years ago, I arrived at the train station in San Sebastian, Spain with a group of people I just met on the train. As is the "custom", the disembarking passengers were surrounded by local children trying to persude travellers to stay at their families pension. A young woman took pity on us befuddled, and slightly drunk Americans and suggested we stay where she was living. I commented on her "IOWA" sweatshirt, telling her I was from a small town west of Chicago. Turns out she roomed in college with my sister's best friend from high school!

Posted By Barbara on May 21, 2007, 11:54 AM

While having tea at the Ritz in London to celebrate my mother's 85th birthday we started chatting with the people at the table next to us. Recognizing the mutual American accents, we asked each other where we were from. My mom and I were living in San Diego at the time. The couple said they lived in Fresno (a city about 250 miles to the north). I mentioned that the only people I knew from Fresno were my daughter-in-law's family. I told them her father's name and they looked amazed and told me that her father, an obstetrician, had delivered all three of their children.

Posted By Kathy Stafford on May 21, 2007, 11:57 AM

A friend I had known when I was 16, yet hadn't seen or talked to in 5 years due to various moves, sent me an email one day to tell me that she had met a local Spaniard in a bar in Madrid that knew me. I spent a couple of months in Madrid one summer after graduating high school so, intrigued, I asked her if she remembered his name or how he knew me. She apologized and admitted she was too drunk to remember how he knew me but just remembers that she spent a good 20 minutes trying to determine if it was the same person they were talking about, and sure enough it was. She was so astonished at her "small world" experience that she took the effort to track down my current email address and fill me in.

Posted By Allison on May 21, 2007, 12:00 PM

Back in 2001, I was studying in Velikii Novgorod, Russia. I only knew a couple other Americans in the entire country of Russia, and they were studying in St. Petersburg. I took a weekend trip to Moscow and was walking through a metro stop really late at night and ran right into one of the few other Americans I knew, who should've been in St. Pete. Very random.

Posted By Jen Smith on May 21, 2007, 12:05 PM

In 1963 my husband was stationed in Bavaria, Germany. On vacation in Italy, I was sitting in a hotel lobby when in walked a boy 2 or 3 years younger than I, who had grown up in my hometown and my home church in Galveston.
In all my travels, never was I tempted to "misbehave" because one never knows who may be watching!

Posted By Loyce Kenneday on May 21, 2007, 12:10 PM

We were driving from Ohio to Florida and stopped for the night in a hotel in Tennessee. While checking in the clerk tells me that the person that she checked before us was also from our home town. He was still in the lobby, waiting for his family. We chatted for a bit. Found out that he even used to live on the same street that we lived at, at the time. It's a small world.

Posted By Robin on May 21, 2007, 12:34 PM

While visiting an all inclusive resort in Cozumel a couple years ago, we were sitting at the beach bar exchanging small talk with the new guests. We met a very nice couple and eventually asked them where they were from. They named a town in Illinois in the same county as us, so we said, of course, "we're from around there too!" I told them the name of the town where I grew up, which was only about 10 miles from them. The conversation then got around to asking if we knew certain pepole from the area. You never really expect to know the people they mention (or vise versa). Imagine my surprise when they asked if we knew someone and it turned out to be my Sister! They were the Aunt & Uncle of my sister's best friend who I have also known for years! We had a great "small world" conversation with them after that, and still keep in touch with them.

Posted By Liz on May 21, 2007, 12:50 PM

Years ago, I was in NYC for the weekend with my mother, having long moved way from my hometown of Cincinnati, OH. We bought half price tix to a broadway show. On the way out of the show, we took the same exit as my best friend from Middle school with whom I had lost touch. She was attending with her performing arts class from Cincinnati.

Since then, I have run into folks from college all over Europe in the Alhambra, Les Baux de provence, youth hostels in Switzerland. It is a small world, but the euro-rail tour is even smaller.

Happy travels.

Posted By Tracy on May 21, 2007, 1:00 PM

People from Regina, Saskatchewan, are frequent travellers. I have two experiences. The first was back in 1976 when I was shopping in London, England. I felt someone stare and follow me. I ignored him. He then said, "I can't believe it!" a couple of times. Having becoming fed up, I turned to say something snarky and realized that it was a friend I knew in Regina. He too was travelling in England. The second experience occurred when I was living as a volunteer on Kibbutz Amiad in Israel. A fellow Scottish volunteer asked me where I was from. By then, I was accustomed to fellow travellers assuming that everyone in Canada knows each other. When he named two women he met in a youth hostel in Greece, I actually knew them from high school in Regina.

It truly is a small world.

Posted By Susan on May 21, 2007, 1:00 PM

While vacationing in Lyon, France, my 2 friends and I were discussing where might be the best place to get some money changed. As we were talking, a young woman came up to us and asked if we were Americans. When we said yes, she asked if she could help us in any way. We told her that we'd like to find a bank with low exchange rates. She told us that she was working as an intern in a Lyon business for the summer, and that there was a bank right next door to her place of employment where she always changed money. As we walked to the bank, she asked where we were from in the US. It turns out that she was from an adjoining suburb of Columbus, Ohio!

Posted By Dawn on May 21, 2007, 1:51 PM

While trekking in Nepal we found our our guide had a regular client, also from Denver, CO. When we heard the name we realized we knew her and that my husband had worked for her husband for several years. A couple of days later at the Monestary in Tengboche we saw a woman wearing a jacket from the village we had lived in for three years - Bad Kreuznach, Germany. We introduced ourselves and they invited us to visit with them the following year when we would be returning to Bad Kreuznach. They wanted to show us their home, also in a Monestary, from the 11th century. It was marvelous and we enjoyed lunch with several folks we had know there 20 years previously. A great trip.

Posted By Claudia Johnston on May 21, 2007, 2:29 PM

I am 81, so I have had many co-incidental situations. Paris is the world's No. 1 travel destination,so it is no surprise that I have had 2 Parisian incidents--meeting a long lost friend on the same plane headed for Paris, the same encounter of the reunion kind while having a drink at a Left Bank cafe, and meeting a former school mate in Bremerhaven where we were being discharged from WWII duty. The list goes on and on.
Harold Flagg

Posted By Harold Flagg on May 21, 2007, 3:45 PM

my dad died and the guy in the next room who died. he grew up with my dad. and the people who came to see this other guy came over to our room to talk to my dad's brother and sisters.but also on vacation in florida i saw the guy who use to cut my grandmother's grass. i told him as he walked by is this what you do with the money my grandmother gives you. go on vacations. it was 1980 and i was in sears with my grandmother. she called my name the guy putting her things into a bag he knew me from 2nd grade in 1967.

Posted By s.l.c on May 21, 2007, 4:20 PM

I had a roommate while stationed overseas who was also from NJ. My fiance and I were invited to his wedding 9/68 but couldn't attend due to a prior commitment in her family. They were invited to our 6/69 wedding. They were walking down the entryway staircase when his wife stopped and asked,"what are you doing here?". I asked her what she meant and she said, "not you". Turning around I saw my wife's uncle waving at her. She had been his secretary for the last several years. They were both aware that the other was attending a wedding that weekend but hadn't delved any deeper because...what possible connection could there be?

Posted By Stewart on May 21, 2007, 5:01 PM

Several years ago, I was on a cruise of the Southern Caribbean. While on a tour of St. Thomas, I overheard a woman telling someone about the Olivas Adobe, which is in Ventura, CA. Since I was born and raised in the area, I continued to eavesdrop. Turns out her husband was a teacher in Oxnard, CA. At that point I turned around and said that I went to high school in Oxnard. Long story made short, her husband was my high school economics teacher 15 years prior! She called him over and amazingly he remembered me! I had to fly from New Orleans to Puerto Rico and take a cruise to St. Thomas to meet someone from my hometown in California! Now THAT'S a small world! :-)

Posted By Melissa on May 21, 2007, 5:12 PM

I was transfering from West Palm Beach, Florida to a new position in San Bernardino, California. During the trip, my wife, my young son and I stopped overnight in San Antonio, Texas. We went down to the San Antonio river to have dinner, and as we were walking along the river, one of the many barges floated by. My ever observant wife looked at the barge and saw my sister and brother-in-law on the barge. She hollared at them, and we met them when the barge docked. My brother-in-law was attending a conference in San Antonio, and brought my sister along. None of us knew the other would be in San Antonio at that time, which made it a very pleasant surprise, and we had a wonderful dinner that night.

Posted By Jack Maher on May 21, 2007, 8:27 PM

Blurry eyed from having to get up early to leave on a 5:15am train in Hong Kong, I was at a tiny coffee shop trying to attain some sort of consciousness. I was vaguely aware of someone walking by my chair. It took me about two seconds to register who it was. My husband's former secretary, and presently our mail carrier had just walked by me. Fortunately she had the same slow response time, as we both turned around at exactly the same time, amazed to find someone we knew so well in such an out-of-the way place, at such an inhumane hour!

Posted By Lesley on May 21, 2007, 8:45 PM

Recently while traveling in China, met a fellow Texan in the elevator of the Hilton Shanghai. He is a UPS pilot, but his aunt and uncle I know here in my home town. Pretty amazing!

Posted By Pat Porter on May 21, 2007, 11:00 PM

I am a hairdresser in the town of Vancouver, in southwest Washington state. While travelling years ago in England, my friend and I were on our last leg of our trip, which had lasted about 16 days, and I told her that I couldn't leave jolly old England without some Roast beef and yorkshire pudding. We were in London, and found a quaint restaurant that had it listed as a specialty, so we went in. I heard my name being called, and looked around to find two of my clients who were also touring the British Isles. I knew they were over there, but had no idea they would be in London at the same time as we were, let alone in the same tiny restaurant! They shared their table with us, and we had a great time!

Posted By Susan Iseli on May 21, 2007, 11:11 PM

While in Rome last month, we were touring Santa Susanna (the American church) on Easter Sunday. The tour guide asked where we all lived. After the tour, she asked to talk with us. Turns out that she had graduated from St. John the Evangelist high school in Milwaukee many years ago. We just happened to be current members of the parish council at St. John the Evangelist parish. We plan on seeing her when she visits Milwaukee in June. Nice encounter!

Posted By Mary Burger on May 22, 2007, 10:10 AM

I had been working as a GO at Club Med Martinique for a few months when I was chatting with a couple over dinner. After the standard questions about what it was like to be a GO, I asked them about themselves. They were on their honeymoon and lived in Yorba Linda, Ca. I asked them where and they said "Oh by the lake". My question was "Do you know the house by the fountain with the two Scotch Terriers?". They looked at each other funny and said "Ummm, yes. We take our scottie to play over to play with them!". Turns out they lived right across the street from my parents!It was a little surreal after meeting people from all over the world, to meet my parents closest neighbor...

Posted By Shawna Esarey on May 22, 2007, 12:27 PM

I lived in Germany, but travelled to San Diego for a conference when I was in my early twenties. Over the weekend I stayed at a hostel at the beach to sleep off my jetlag in a relaxing atmosphere. I sat on the front porch when a guy that looked awfully familiar sat down chatting with someone else. I found out he was German as well, and later asked him where I might know him from. We found out we were both in 1st grade of elementary school in Istanbul, Turkey together as kids - he could not believe I recognized him!

Posted By Hanna on May 22, 2007, 4:46 PM

My husband and I were on a cruise in the Western Caribbean and the ship stopped in Mexico. We had disembarked the ship and were on a shore excursion bus to the Mayan ruins. A couple almost across the aisle made a comment that they recognized my husbands voice. It turned out they were our former neighbors who had moved away about 15 years prior to that trip. What a coincidence to meet up with them on a bus in Mexico. We are from Conn. USA

Posted By Frances Moseley on May 22, 2007, 5:21 PM

After graduating from high school, my sister took me on a two week trip to Costa Rica. I was floating on my back in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Manuel Antonio when I heard, "Lauren?" I looked over and my two best friends from elementary school (whom I hadn't seen in 6 years) were swimming in the ocean as well! We stood in the water and caught up for two hours ;-)

Posted By lauren on May 23, 2007, 12:39 AM

Growing up an Army Brat I had moved around a lot. After going from Germany, to North Carolina, and on to California I was still Best Friends with a girl from NC. She told me all about her Fiancee and invited me to his Boot Camp graduation. To my surprise, after meeting him and his family, we realized that I had been in the same 7th grade class as his brother in Germany six years before!

Posted By Denise Ayala on May 23, 2007, 4:12 AM

Two years ago, my husband and I went on a cruise to Alaska, a place very distant from our home in South Florida. While in Juneau, we took a helicopter ride to Mendelhall Glacier and while walking toward the helicopter, there were two people in front of us headed in the same direction, but because of their hooded coats, we couldn't see their faces. It wasn't until we boarded the helicopter that we realized the people were from our hometown. Not only were we in the same helicopter, but of the 3 ships docked in Juneau, we were all in the same cruiseship!! We had a really nice time.

Posted By Martha on May 23, 2007, 8:43 AM

When I was stationed with the Army in Germany, a friend and I went on leave to a beach resort in Spain. On our last day there, we were sitting with a bunch of other Americans in the lobby of a hotel where the bus was scheduled to pick us up (one of a number of scheduled stops) to take us all back to our various posts in Germany.

As usually happens when Americans get together in a foreign country, we did the whole "where are you from?" thing. The girl sitting next to me said "New Hampshire." Being from NH, I of course jumped right in with "oh my gosh, me too, where?"

"You won't know it," she said. "It's a really small town called Campton."

"No kidding?" I replied. "I'm from Plymouth!" (Which, for all you non-NH folks, is one of the towns right next to Campton.)

The conversation proceeded to the predictable who-do-you-know and who-are-you-related-to questions, asked in increasing tones of disbelief: turns out we're second cousins!

We'd never met before because her father had been stationed away from the States for a number of years and they were never able to make it to family gatherings. I was amazed (and still am) that I met a closely-related cousin when the two of us sat down next to each other to wait for a bus in a country neither of us was from, while on vacation from another country neither of us was from. Talk about small worlds.

Posted By Danielle on May 23, 2007, 2:45 PM

I am originally from Romania but came to the United States at the age of 3 and have lived in Chicago ever since. While in college I studied abroad one semester in Paris. Before I left a friend of my mothers asked if I would hand deliver a greeting card to a family member of hers in Paris. About a month after I arrived this person and I decided to meet at her church so I can give her the card. While waiting outside the church a young man not much older than I approached and asked if I needed help. I explained I was waiting for someone. We proceeded to talk a bit and introduced ourselves. Turns out we had the same last name. And I have a VERY UNCOMMON last name. I thought he was kidding and asked to see his ID. Well not only did you have the same last name but we also shared the same birthday June 1st. Yet we did not recognize any family member names. Later that night I called my father back in the states and told him I met a young man with the same last name and asked if he recognized this person’s father’s name. Indeed he did. My father and his father are cousins. Unbelievable!!! What are the odds?

Posted By Connie on May 23, 2007, 2:56 PM

When my husband and I traveled from Florida to Hawaii, we stopped in Honolulu briefly before heading on the Kauai. I remember distinctly thinking to myself that I looked like the wrath of God after such a long flight, and I was glad I didn't know anyone in the airport as I took a short walk before reboarding. It was just about that moment I heard someone yell my full name, and I turned around to find someone from my Florida hometown who was also visiting Hawaii. I have never again taken it for granted that I won't see anyone I know, even thousands of miles from home!

Posted By Carole on May 23, 2007, 8:22 PM

Returning to Colorado from a job interview in Memphis two years ago, I recognized the name of the town printed on her jacket as a small town near where I grew up in Missouri. I asked her about it, and as we began to talk, we realized that she had grown up with the parents of a family I was once a nanny for.

Three years ago, my company in CO sent me to Norfolk, VA, for a month to work in one of the branch offices. I thought I recognized the gal who was the secretary in the office across the hall as someone I went to college with in Arkansas. I went in to find out, and discovered that I was correct. When she learned I was living out of a hotel for a month, she invited me for dinner. Turns out, she had married one of my former professors, and they were living in VA while he worked on his doctorate at ODU.

While traveling in Australia with my college chorus, we performed at a church outside of Sydney. After our performance, I struck up a conversation with an American missionaries from OK who was working with the church. As we talked, I learned he had attended the same college as my best friend from elementary school's older brother. I knew it was a long shot, because my friend's brother had only attended college for one semester, but when I asked, it turned out they had been roommates! But that's not the end of it... The missionary asked me to introduce him to one of the girls in our group because he noticed from the program that they shared the same last name. I obliged, and as the two exchanged info and started swapping names, they discovered that their fathers were cousins, which made them second cousins.

Posted By Laura E. on May 25, 2007, 8:44 PM

I've had two "it's a small world" encounters that seem remarkable to me. The first occurred in Hong Kong when I was traveling, during the school year, with my husband on business. I taught at the local high school, and had taken a personal leave. As we were checking into the hotel, I heard from across the lobby, "It's Mrs. Streeter!" and the parents of one of my students rushed across to greet me.

The second occurred in Sorrento. My husband and I had carefully selected the restaurant we would go to in the evening, but when we arrived, no table was available, causing us to wait in the bar. No sooner had we gotten our drinks, when I heard, "Mrs. Youmans, do you remember me? I was in your 1st period class when you got married." I did remember him and our chance meeting definitely added to my memories of Sorrento.

Posted By Pat on May 28, 2007, 2:19 AM

Some years ago, visiting my government-posted parents in Taipei, Taiwan, one does what Americans always do in foreign countries - hangs out at the American Officers Club. Chatting with another fellow I'd never met before, doing the usual, "Oh, you're from the Washington, DC area too?" routine. It didn't take us long to figure out that we had been dating sisters in Wheaton, MD, at the same time, and although we had seen each others' cars in passing, had not met until now.

Posted By Art Kosatka on May 28, 2007, 8:07 AM

Back in 1969, my parents, grandparents and I traveled from Virginia to the old Marlbough Meeting House near Kennett Square, PA. to start family research on the Quakers in our family history during the 1700's. We met a very nice older man mowing the adjacent cemetery who turned out to be my 6th cousin, twice removed. In typical Quaker fashion, he loaned us (complete strangers) his only copy of his family's genealogical charts, and told us to just drop it in the mail when we were through with it! His information, going back generations and generations, really helped. Over the years, I'd traveled far and wide in the world, but still thought of this act of trust and kindness to absolute strangers. Recently, my husband and I happened to be traveling down Rt 1 in Kennett Square, and I asked him to swing off the highway to visit the cemetery again. There was a young woman with a child playing outside the meeting house. After paying my respects in the cemetery, I went over and mentioned my visit of over 30 years before with my now departed parents and grandparents, and the kindness of that man. She was the man's granddaughter! The utter coincidence brought tears to my eyes.

Posted By Sheila on May 28, 2007, 9:22 AM

Although not a seasoned traveler I arrived in Rome for a wedding. I was by myself without any luggage and just heard the friend I was meeting would be delayed two days. My hotel was horrible and am one of the people in the world who HATES eating alone. A different travel buddy told me to be sure to stop in as many churches as each one is like a museum. The first one I went to just happened to be a Sunday so I decided to stay for mass. While still on my knees praying in walks my best friend from grade school's parents!!! I started to cry. They took me to their 5-star hotel for bruch then lent me fresh clothes for the day. I felt renewed and savored every moment of the trip!!!

Posted By Gwen Bauer Stiles on May 28, 2007, 10:20 AM

On our last day in Florence in March, my son and I had spent the morning walking back to a shop near Santa Croce where he'd found a purse he wanted to buy for his girlfriend. We walked back along the Arno to the Trinita bridge, then decided to find lunch at Mercato Centrale. We'd turned down a side aisle when I heard someone say "Carolyn," but obviously it didn't apply to me, so I kept walking. When the people came bodily after us to greet us, it turned out to be friends from our small town in Louisiana (who we'd had NO idea would be there), in Florence visiting his nephew, there for culinary school, and his wife . As our friends said, if we'd been just a couple of steps farther down that aisle, they wouldn't have seen us. When I think of all the steps we'd taken that day, the possibility of our running into each other seemed slim to a vanishing point.

Posted By Carolyn on May 28, 2007, 10:38 AM

Several women that I graduated from high school with and I traveled from a small town near Buffalo, NY, to visit another schoolmate in Arizona.
We took the train ride to the Grand Canyon and had been taking the shuttlebus to see the sights. We disembarked at the wrong place at one point and were trying to figure out what bus we needed to catch, when I heard someone say "Beckie, is that you?" It was a former coworker from my town and her family, who were also visiting the Grand Canyon. It surprised us both--what a small world it is.

Posted By rebecca winchester on May 28, 2007, 11:33 AM

My parents used to tell the story of this incident during their driving trip to California from Washington State during the 1950's. Somewhere north of Los Angeles they gave a ride to a hitch-hiking serviceman. During a conversation they asked where the young man was from. He said "no place you ever heard of." He finally said his hometown was Merrill, Wisconsin, to which my astonished mother replied "I was born in Merrill, and lived there until our family moved to Washington when I was 5 years old." They knew some of the same families.

Posted By Don Duncan on May 28, 2007, 11:38 AM

When I was working in Somalia in the mid-80s, I lived across the street from an American who had been a Peace Corps Volonteer in Swaziland in the late 70s. I had worked in Swaziland in the early 80s. He took one of my dogs to keep at his house at one point. He said to me, "I used to have a dog like this in Swaziland, a yellow dog with floppy ears. Her name was Inja. That means 'dog' in Siswati."
I said, "I know that means 'dog' in Siswati. I knew a dog named Inja. Yellow dog, floppy ears .... I knew your dog!" "Really?" he asked. "Yeah," said I, "she farted a lot." "That's her!" he said. And so it was - my boss there had owned his dog. Her former owner was quite happy to have news of her.

Posted By Maryanne Leblanc on May 28, 2007, 11:39 AM

Twenty years ago, my husband and I had a one-week vacation in Greece. The day before we were to return to the states, we took a day trip to Hydra. As we were walking along the beach, he started smiling at a young woman in a bikini. Being newly married, I was more than a little irritated at him flirting with a strange woman. As she walked nearer, she called out "Mr. M.!!!" She was one of his community college students from the previous semester. His students typically wouldn't even drive into Pittsburgh, less than 20 miles away, so it was quite a unexpected to see one on a little island in Greece.

Posted By amy on May 28, 2007, 12:01 PM

When I was studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan, I made an appointment to visit the U.S. Embassy, since I was interested in joining the State Department. It was close to the 2004 election and there was a security line around the block. I saw a guy in line who looked somewhat familiar. I didn't think much of it, but then I looked again. And shouted, "Aaron?" It turned out to be my high school debate team captain, who I hadn't seen in 5 years since he'd moved to the East Coast for college. His family had moved back to Japan after he graduated high school and he was visiting them. Ironically, he didn't know much about Tokyo, so we met up a couple times and I showed him around. It was serendipitious!

Posted By Whitney on May 28, 2007, 12:10 PM

In 1983 while in Europe with People-to-People our high school group was in Munich for the 4th of July. We spent the evening at the Hofbrauhaus along with every other American that was in Germany it seemed. (The main hall there holds about 2000 people). Three of us were walking around to see if we could find any other people from Nebraska. One of the girls in my group found the older sister of one of her friends back home in Omaha. The sister was supposed to be in Paris I believe, but decided to come to Germany for the 4th.

Posted By Lisa on May 28, 2007, 12:39 PM

My husband and I went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera in April to celebrate our anniversary. We enjoyed the "anytime dining" feature of the cruise as we were able to meet different people every night. One night while greeting the people who sat down at the next table, we began the usual introductions of asking each other where we were from. As we were all from California, we next asked what city, to which they replied, "Well, do you know where Redding is?" My husband said, "Yes, we live there!"

Posted By Gwen on May 28, 2007, 12:42 PM

My sister & I went to Kauai in March 2003. We rented a gold colored jeep wrangler and as we spent days driving all over the island, we kept passing another jeep of the same color. We starting waving at our "twin" each time we would pass and they would wave back, never actually getting a good look at them. We pulled into a small restaurant on the way to Kilauea Lighthouse and decided to put our top up on the jeep, since it looked like rain. As I just got the last latch snapped, a man approached us to ask how we got the top latched, as he couldn't figure it out on his jeep rental. I turned to look, and it was our "twin"! And, not only that - but when his wife got out of the other jeep - she recognized my sister immediately - they worked together just a couple years prior to that and she and her husband were on their honeymoon! We were all amazed at what a small world it is - and just goes to show you - always wave - you never know if it's someone you know!

Posted By Julie Krone on May 28, 2007, 2:17 PM

I was in the departure room at the Belize airport, waiting for a connecting flight to Flores, Guatemala. I was going to learn Spanish in San Andres for two weeks, then join an archeological dig in Nakbe, Peten. I looked in some of the shops and also scanned the seating area for a vacant seat. Whom should I see but the couple who lived next door to my Berkeley childhood home over thirty years ago. They had moved with their three kids to Texas because of a job transfer in the '70's. They were waiting for a flight home after participating in an Elder Hostel trip.I went up to them and introduced myself. It took them a few minutes to recognize me since they hadn't seen me since I was a teenager. It was an incredible coincidence. When they got home they telephoned my parents with whom they have kept in touch, to let them know I was all right.

Posted By Leslie Lethridge on May 28, 2007, 3:03 PM

I studied abroad in Cuernavaca, Mexico during college--living with a Mexican family while I was there. It was a mid-size town with about 250,000 residents. My first weekend there, the family I was living with introduced me to a local guy named Pablo who was about my age. We quickly became friends and spent a great deal of time together during the month I spent in the country. We promised to stay in touch, but only managed to write or speak on the phone once or twice after I returned to the U.S.

Four to five years later, I decided to return to Cuernavaca--taking my mom along as my travel companion. While eating at a restaurant on the main square our first day, my mom asked if she would get to meet Pablo while we were in town. I told her that I kept meaning to call him in the week leading up to our trip to see if he even lived at the same address and if so to let him know that we would be in town, but I was so busy at work that I never found/made the time, but that I still wanted to try to reach him while we were in town.

We finished lunch and walked outside the restaurant, and there stood a group of Mexican guys and girls in their 20s. I just kept staring at this one guy; he stared back at me. His friends were looking at him strangely because he suddenly wasn't engaged in their conversation. You guessed it: It was Pablo.

Posted By Dana on May 28, 2007, 3:51 PM

About 15 years ago, I was on a flight to England and was a bit hesitant because I had never flown before (or remembered because the last time I flew, I was 2). The weather was terrible, the plane was de-iced and once we made it to the runway, we had to turn around because of a mechanical issue. During the delay, I got to know the people around me, as well as the flight attendant. I was quite honest about my nerves and they were all chatty to keep my focus elsewhere. The person sitting next to me ended up knowing my grandmother because they volunteered at the same hospital. WIth about an hour to go in the flight, the flight attendant invited myself and 2 other people to meet the pilot in the cockpit (we were all white knuckler fliers). That was an amazing experience. Now flash forward about 4 years. I was visiting my sister in another state and we went to a fair. We went to eat at a local church where they were raising money with a pasta dinner. There was a familiar face sitting at the table next to me but it took a while for me to place where I knew her from. Ends up that she was one of the ladies who visited the cockpit with me on that flight to England. She happened to be in Delaware visiting family as well. Small world to live in different states, briefly meet up while traveling to another country only to meet up again visiting out of state relatives years later!

Posted By Gail on May 28, 2007, 7:40 PM

When traveling in England some years ago (from my home in New Jersey), I was changing trains in Victoria Station in London. As I trundled my bags across the crowded station, I literally bumped into a woman I had met several years earlier in California She had been my cousin's roommate and I had stayed with them for a couple of days. I had just arrived in London and she was leaving, so it was a very short "reunion" but I was so amazed that, of all the hundreds of people in Victoria, I bumped into the one person I knew!

Posted By B. Brown on May 28, 2007, 9:41 PM

On our first day in Varenna, Italy, at Lake Como to celebrate our 25th anniversary, we waited on a bench at the ferry dock for our trip to Bellagio. Seated next to us was an elderly couple speaking English. I asked where they were from. "California" they replied. I answered that we were too, and inquired what City they were from. They were from our home town - Sunnyvale. In fact, they lived about 3 blocks away!

Posted By Pamela Heldenbrand on May 29, 2007, 12:00 AM

In 1972-73 I was an exchange student to Cape Town, South Africa. I was invited to go on a practice sail on a yacht in the Cape to Rio yachting races on Table Bay. A crew member sat down next to me on the yacht and asked where I was from. "America," I answered. He asked where. "Wyoming," I replied. Where in Wyoming he asked. I said, "a very small town near Yellowstone." He persisted, so I finally so I finally said, "I'm from Powell." "Oh," he answered casually, "I'm from Meteetsee." That's a tiny town about 60 miles from very small Powell. To find 2 people from land-locked small Wyoming towns on a yacht in Table Bay has to be remarkable!

Posted By Judy in Montana on May 29, 2007, 12:51 AM

Two incidents:
1) On a recent trip to Disneyworld we had a large delay in our luggage delivery, so I went to the Bell Services desk at the resort to inquire. All Disney employees have their hometown on their nametags and the guy who helped me was not only from our town, but had worked right up the hill from my house, until his retirement 4 years previously. We chatted about hometown happenings--and he found my bags, too!

2) My wife and I were in Bermuda and visited a small local brewery for a tour. The owner had us sign the guestbook and then sent us over for samples while we waited for it to begin. A few minutes later I heard someone say "Lockport? Who's from Lockport?" It was a honeymoon couple from our town! We didn't know them, but we all thought it was funny. Fast-forward 4 years: My wife and I are looking for a house. We showed up with our agent to view a house owned by a couple with a new baby. We looked at each other with the "don't I know you?" look and realized that this was the SAME couple we had met in Bermuda 4 years previously!

Posted By Jon in Lockport, NY on May 29, 2007, 9:08 AM

My boyfriend and I were waiting at Miami Intl airport for a flight to Quito, and there was a group of college students waiting nearby. I had just graduated from college a year before. I looked over at the students and realized that they were from my small liberal arts college, and a guy and a girl in the group were friends of mine. I had played the opposite lead in a play with the guy two years ago, and he was my college roommate's ex-boyfriend. The girl was also an ex-girlfriend of one of my male college friends, and moreover, I had just spent a weeklong trip in the Smoky Mountains with her two months prior. I was with a group of 8 in a rented house, and she and I shared one bedroom. They were also on their way to Quito for a study abroad trip. On the plane there was an empty seat next to them and I got to talk with them for a few hours.

Posted By Christina on May 29, 2007, 9:54 AM

We were staying at an Italian-run hotel in Agidir Morocco and were sure that we were the only Americans. The waiter assued us that there was another group from the USA and took us to their table to meet them. It turned out that they were a group of Policemen from Kutztown, PA. My daughter had graduated from Kutztown University a few years ago, and one of the policemen vividly remembered stopping her for driving 'under the influence'! He confided that he would have arrested her but he was just about to go home, so he just impounded her car instead. My husband and I remembered the hysterical phone call that she placed to us when that happened. I thanked him for perhaps saving her from an accident!

Posted By susan cole on May 29, 2007, 10:26 AM

We live in South Pasadena in Southern California.

We decided we wanted to go see what the Fall leaves looked like in the northeast. In October 2000 on a trip to upstate New York, we went to see the famous caves.

While on an elevator that takes you down to the caves, I was standing at the front of the elevator of about 20 people, when someone from the back of the elevator yelled out, "Andy Au!"

I turned around and it was Herbie Sarnoff, a high school friend I had not seen since 1982 or so.

Both he and his wife who live in San Diego and my wife and I were on brief trips away from our under 3 year old children and we talked about how different it was on this vacation without any babies or toddlers to care for.

Posted By Andy Au on May 29, 2007, 11:37 AM

Having grown up in Mississippi, I spent the first week of my freshman year at Columbia University, in New York, being quizzed about culture shock and how awful it must be to be the only person on campus from Mississippi. I was getting tired of the routine. The following week, during a get together, I couldn't help but stare at a young woman across the room. Thankfully, she couldn't help but return my stare. I didn't necessarily recognize her face, but I knew her jacket: a satin, pink bomber with "Okinawa" printed in block letters across the back. We traded funny looks for about 15 minutes before the proverbial flashlight went off for both of us. "I know you!" I yelled out. "You were one of the on-base kids!" Turns out, we'd attended fourth and fifth grades together in Columbus, Mississippi, home to Columbus Air Force base. Her father had been stationed there, just after completing a tour in Okinawa, Japan, which is where she got that fabulous jacket. All those years later, we met again--in school, just like before.

Posted By NiaTrue on May 29, 2007, 5:02 PM

I was in Frankfurt,Germany for New Year's 2006 with my boyfriend who lives in Ireland. We were supposed to be in Dublin for the holiday, but our RyanAir flight was canceleld and we were stranded. Luckily, we found a hotel in the city and decided to make the best of it. We went out in an old area of town-samll pubs, cobblestone streets. Well, my boyfriend bet me at the beginning of the trip that I wouldn't meet anyone form Kentucky. Anyhow, at the stroke of midnight everyone spileld out onto the street and let off firecrackers and hugged and kissed each other. So, this young American man comes up and hugs me and I asked him where he's from. He said "Kentucky" and I had a look on my face...he said "Oh mu God you were a teacher of mine in high school." I hadn't seent this guy in years. He is in the Army stationed in Germany. He is now in Iraq. Don't know what happened to him after that. Needless to say-I won the bet!!

Posted By Erin on May 29, 2007, 9:21 PM

A few years ago I spent a summer in Tanzania. Early one evening while on safari to the Ngorogoro Crater, I was walking around our small campsite with a colleague from the US. Suddenly I heard someone call her name and we both turned around and saw a man running after us. After a moment she recognized the man - a guy she had worked with in South Africa a few years before. They had totally lost touch with each other-she had returned to the US and he had moved onto a job in Nigeria. After that I day I became convinced of just how small the world is...you never know where you might run into someone - for us it was in the middle of the African bush.

Posted By DCAmy on June 1, 2007, 6:18 PM

I met up with my sister in Montreal, when she was attending a medical conference. She is from Ct. I asked her if she knew anybody in Montreal (doctors meet a lot of people in school and residency), but she said the only person she knew was a friend's daughter, Emily, who was going to college up there. We decided to go, by subway, to another part of the city for dinner. A girl got on and my sister said that she looked like Emily,but she didn't have the guts to ask her. We got to our stop, and she rushed off at the same stop. I was scolding my sister for missing the chance to see if this was the girl, when we noticed she had stopped to talk to someone. As she walked by us again, my sister did ask her if she was Emily and, of course, she was. One person in a city of two million, who got off at the same stop we did, and it was her!

Posted By Felicity on June 2, 2007, 7:01 PM

A few years ago, my son (who was 6) and I took our first trip to Scotland. We had rented a car and were driving along the very obscure, but beautiful & very northwestern area. We stopped at a cafe/craftshop/giftshop/visitors center after driving for hours at 35 MPH on a single lane (main road up there) with passing places. As we were looking at the map and the view, an older couple who were next to us asked us where we were from. I told them we lived in Matamoras, PA and they laughed. We lived in area that was considered tri-state due to being able to cross from NY, NJ and PA within minutes. They lived in Branchville, NJ about 15 minutes from us. Small world.

Posted By Susan Gifford on June 2, 2007, 7:01 PM

Last summer while on a trip out West we stopped at a truck stop in San Jon,New Mexico.I went into the restroom,and while waiting I looked at the other woman waiting with her daughter-I realized that I knew her.I was trying to figure out where I new her from so I told her that I knew her and she just looked at me.I was thinking of what to say so I said you live in Illinois right?Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head she said.yes-so I said I live in Mokena.She gasped and said I work at the post office!As we continued on that day we went to Eagles Nest and we were talking to some people at a bar and grill.I struck up a conversation with the people at the picnic table by us,asking where they were all from.several people told us then the girl behind me said she was from Chicago,I said that we were too.then she said well really by Joliet-which we are also!At that she said she was from New Lenox-which neighbors my hometown of Mokena!Then she laughed as she turned around and showed me the t shirt she was wearing-for the Mc Donalds softball team in next door Frankfort!It is a small world!

Posted By jackie thomas on June 3, 2007, 2:48 PM

When I was 9 years old, my parents moved our family from Portland, Oregon to Chungking, China for one year. There, we met a nice Canadian couple, David and Linda. When I was 12 years old and lived back in Portland, my dad took our family on a cross country road trip to Toronto, Canada where we saw David crossing the street when our van stopped at a red light. We pulled David in the van and drove him home and met up with Linda to our screaming delight!

Posted By Beckie on June 6, 2007, 8:18 AM

We had just moved to Florida in 1969 and my boyfriend from home was visiting us. We were waiting with him at the airport for his flight back home when we look up and see an old family friend all lovey, dovey with a young woman. This man was friend of my parents and the woman was not his wife or daughter. Needless to say he was flustered as he tried to explain her presence. My parents never heard from that friend again.

Posted By Barbara Mathis on June 16, 2007, 4:20 PM

Hi

Very interesting information! Thanks!


G'night

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Posted By govokinolij on July 13, 2007, 10:34 AM