To ask about this utterly random coincidental meeting?

I saw a (minor) celebrity at a party in a country I was visiting, he came in with his new girlfriend, which I knew from primary school (in my home country)

We were flying to the US. Our first flight out of Gatwick was delayed and we ended up having to spend the night in Detroit as we’d missed the last flight for the night to our destination.

On the shuttle bus to the airport hotel we got talking to an American couple and it turned out the husband had spent ten years working in a factory on our street years ago! We lived in a small town in the NE of England at that point. They were very sad to hear that the factory had since closed and houses had been built on the site.

Erm.. when I was 17, my girlfriend, and the girl I was cheating on her with, caught the same national express coach from London to Leeds, and sat next to each other. I went to the bus station to meet the coach and got dumped by both of them on the spot.

I did learn my lesson.

My Dad was a nuclear test veteran, and it's a pretty small niche group to be in. Started a job and got chatting to a girl on break. Discovered her cousin was someone I know on Facebook as a bit of a mover and shaker in the campaigning for justice for test vets world.

On a similar theme, I was part of a local am dram group about 15 years ago, doing backstage and design. Discovered the latest leading lady was the daughter of my Dad's lymphoma consultant.....

Went to view a flat with my DP, and it turned out the downstairs neighbour was the girlfriend of a chap who had assaulted my DP in an incident that went to court and everything. We did not move in. It's not like we live in a small town either.

I used to have a shop, and in the early days acquired a slightly dotty elderly gentleman as a regular visitor. He needed some support, which was sometimes above my paygrade, so ended up getting ASC involved etc. Told my Dad and SM about it, using just his first name. Both of them kind of looked at each other and asked if his surname was "Smith" which I confirmed. They actually knew him years before and were able to give a bit of back story, which was pretty chaotic. I had to promise not to let my elderly "friend" know where they lived.....

I sometimes think it's quantum entanglement or something.....

I was getting the train to leeds and the guy sat opposite me spilled his coffee on my while he was getting off the train. He didn't say anything which I thought was rude!

Then when I got the train home he got on and sat next to me again, he said 'did I spill coffee on you this morning?!' and I got a proper apology.

Went to youngest sons graduation and then travelled on to a very nice hotel in Dorset to celebrate the final ending of the University years. In the restaurant that night we sat on a table next to the parents of my husband's best friend through Primary school. Husband was brought up in Halifax but hasn't lived there since he was 10. He recognised the accent and then the face of friend's mother.

I feel like I randomly bump into people abroad way more often than I do in London, where we actually live.

Several years ago I was in Porto in December and while walking through an otherwise deserted park bumped into someone I last saw at university 15 years previously.

A couple of years ago I was in Naples for a work trip. Unexpectedly had an evening off, booked myself a spontaneous solo table at a restaurant across town... and at the table next to me, at the same time on the same day, were good friends of mine who were on holiday. That was a very fun night in the end. Funnily enough a few years before we'd have probably all known in advance we'd be there at the same time, as we'd have mentioned it on social media, but by 2023 none of us were broadcasting our personal lives any more, so it was a total surprise.

When I did jury duty, I got chatting to a man on the same case. We came from the same town and he lived 5 doors down from me. I walked past his house every day.

This is so true, we've bumped into people at Disneyland Paris several times. Also one resort in the Loire in France we bumped into 3 sets of school families in one holiday.

My brother was working on a checkout in Morrison's in Edinburgh when he got chatting to a customer who turned out to be our dad's milkman from Sheffield 40 years ago.

Aww, this is also very sweet. ❤️

Wow!

I was on holiday in France, visiting a cave under a little town. Met someone I knew.

You win the internet today! This is beautiful! ❤️

I went to uni 250 miles from home. Sat in my first tutorial and was chatting to the boy next to me. Realised quickly he was from the next village from me. Turned out his mum and my mum sit next to each other in their choir!

I went on a teen holiday organised by a company - it was 16-18 and parents didn’t go.

2 years later I took a job with another company near me that organise teen holidays and on day one meet the instructor - who was the instructor I had there.

different companies and different counties. Same type of activity.

I was staying in a hostel in Malaysia and got chatting to another British woman there. She was the older sister of someone I was in primary school with. Her parents lived just up the road from mine.

We went on a caravan holiday a few hours from home (so not as impressive as the abroad stories) but without us knowing, a neighbour from a few doors down ended up two caravans away from us for the same exact week we were there.

And when I met DH we found we had been in the same places at the same time multiple times. We know we must have talked during some of them but didn’t really remember each other. Then we realised that his dad who had sadly died a few months before we met was my childhood postie who would have delivered all my exam results and once retrieved our dog who decided to escape the house (and hated people touching his collar but was fine with my FIL holding it to take him home).

Not me but close family members, both involving f mountains! Years ago my sister was hiking a mountain trail in China. Dusk was coming and she was beginning to worry she had taken a wrong turn and heard something coming down the path. She was nervous it was some kind of wild animal which could be aggressive (that she had been warned about), it was a bloke and she spoke to him to check the way down - he only worked for my uncle back in the UK!

again years ago parents on top of a mountain in Oman. Stopped to admire the view from a viewing point and there was a British man there. Got chatting, turned out to be my sister’s piano teacher from 30 years earlier when they all lived in west Africa.

I moved from the U.K. to Vietnam for a year when I was 18. I knew nobody, so my first night there I went to a little bar around the corner. Sat at the bar and when I ordered my drink the guy sat next to me said hey you’re Welsh! He was from the same town as me and we had quite a few friends in common, but didn’t know each other. He was there as his family are Vietnamese and he was visiting for a couple of weeks.

We went out for a few years after that.

4kids3pets that’s absolutely lovely! Gave me goosebumps ❤️

Bumped into an ex in the US

One: On a plane to Bermuda, sat next to a lady returning home from visiting her daughter. The daughter lives in a house a few down from the one I grew up in where I had babysat the kids from time to time.

Two: I was working in an army HQ as the lowest ranking person on the staff in an office type of job. A new captain came to join the office staff for our section. It turned out to be a guy who lived across the street from me when I was very small and used to babysit me. More embarrassingly, he had quite a lot of whiskers for a teenager at the time and I used to like to rub my face on them until I turned red.

NYE 2022 DH (BF at the time) & I spontaneously decide to fly to TianJin to see in the new year under the big clock on the river. 2nd Jan we're in the airport boarding our return flight when we bump into an ex of mine! Apparently his GF's (now wife) family lived in that city!