What are YOU doing here!?

A couple years ago we took the girls to New Orleans for spring break. We ran into three different local families all within a half hour. We had no idea any of them were planning on going there.

Wow! You've totally got me beat!

Did any of them know that any of them were going to be there?

I don't know that they knew each other. One family was a classmate of K's, another was a family from our church, and the third was someone else from town.

That's freaky!

Yep! It was a little bizarre!

About 40 years ago, the hamburgers and I travelled to Germany to visit family.

We always flew by KLM, going through Schiphol in Amsterdam.

That year, when we got on the plane to come back to Canada, the man sitting one seat over from my father was a former colleague of his. I babysat his kids. They lived about 10 houses away.

We didn't know he'd had a quick trip to Holland.

It was a surprise to see him in the check in line at the airport - an even bigger surprise to discover him in the same row on the plane.

Some years ago I ran into a women from my adult ed class on the steps of the Paris Opera.

Well - it was a French language class!

But still, half way around the world!

I ran into a classmate I hadn't seen in years in a sub shop in Nashville, TN on a weekend road trip.

Wow ehBeth and margo!

My story is starting to feel a bit like running into my neighbor at the corner mailbox!

But I'm glad it sparked this question because it just seems so crazy to bump into someone like that.

Dang!

Similarish for me -- ran into a high school classmate (from Minnesota) in London. Then ran into ANOTHER one, same trip, in Paris. (They didn't have anything to do with each other.)

I seriously need to get out more.

Seriously.

I ran into a guy I went to university with on a ferry in Bangkok and then a month or so later when I was back in Bangkok I ran into him again on a ferry. We were both backpacking and moving around a lot - not just riding the Bangkok ferries every day so it was a bit of a coincidence.

That's funny. I have some undiagnosed brain defect which prevents me from recognizing people if I see them out of context, so if that situation had happened to me I would have been like, "I know I know you from somewhere...."

Returning from 2 months in France last year waiting to board at Hong Kong we bumped into a work colleague who'd left Australia the year before to work in the Arab Emirates. Weird.

I think I may have the winner.

A woman who was part of my friendship group had a fifteen year affair with a fella. Had a regular Friday night date.

Her partner knew, we (very large extended group) all knew, and Adelaide is only 1.5 million people. What were the chances his partner would remain in the dark?

I'd have said nil...but she did.

Anyhoo, as it happened both couples were travelling around Europe.

Only once did their itineraries come within coo-ee of each other...in Switzerland.

They decided to meet for lunch in an obscure and non-tourist favoured village in the Alps...kind of in between where they were both staying...for like 2 hours.

Busted. A group of his partner's friends turned up in the same obscure cafe, and could not resist telling said partner.


Weird.

Ha! I know just what you mean. Sozlet's orthodontist came up to me at a local festival and my brain just about melted. ("So familiar... but who the heck is he???")

not my story and somewhat different from the topic, but a few years ago i was listening to a BBC documentary on coincidences, a woman told the story of a hiking trip she and a group of friends undertook in the lakes district in England, on a country road they came across a phone box, as they were walking past it started ringing, on a lark one woman decided to answer it, the woman on the other end asked for a specific person by name, the woman explained that she had called a phone box, on a deserted road in the lakes district by mistake, but further added that she had only ever heard of one other person with that name, a girl she'd gone to primary school with over 30 years ago, and about 200 miles away, the woman on the phone mentioned a certain school and asked if that was the one she was referring to, the hiker said yes, and was surprised to discover she was talking to a schoolmate she hadn't seen or heard from since school days

beat that facebook

We were travelling from central Florida, on the way out west. On our first night out, we stopped in the Florida Panhandle. There we ran into a neighbor, who was coming back from a trip out west.