To ask Strangest Place you have bumped into someone you know?

[TomLee475]

I was in Germany recently and bumped into someone I used to work with in India.

Working on the weekend in London (never work on the weekend or in London usually) Bumped into my godmother from my home city on the tube platform. So lovely to see her.

Cable car museum in San Francisco, bumped into work collegues from dh's previous job.

I've loads of examples, it really can be a small word.

Former colleague at the top of the Empire State.

Brother works in same v small building as DH best friend.

DHs friend is married to a former colleague of his but happened to meet randomly.

2 neighbours of mine in London used to stack shelves together at a Tesco in Manchester as teens.

This one is a bit of a weird coincidence.

Went to country park for children on holiday and met a couple and their children also on holiday. Spent the day with them as they were lovely.

Next year went back same time of year and randomly met them again at the same (huge. Many many acres) park. Still absolutely lovely!

At the bus stop outside my local zoo. But they were Australians I knew from when we were all living in Tokyo, and the zoo was in a city in the UK.

I was dancing on a table in Cancun (not a very me thing to do as I was super quiet and shy) and a girl I went to school with came over and very awkwardly tried to work out if it was me

“Hi, erm, this may sound crazy but I was wondering...” “Kelly, it is me Fandango!”

I once ran into an old friend from university when viewing a room for rent in a shared house in north London (he was also looking to rent it). Also bumped into him a year or so later when coming out of the HMV shop in Oxford Street

More recently on holiday once I bumped into a woman I knew vaguely (her children had swimming lessons at the same time as mine and we often used to sit and talk). We were at Tenby, just getting off a boat from Caldy Island, and she was in the queue waiting to get on it.

Reading some of the previous posts makes me wonder how often we must miss bumping into people we know, perhaps just by a couple of minutes or a few hundred feet.

Reading some of the previous posts makes me wonder how often we must miss bumping into people we know, perhaps just by a couple of minutes or a few hundred feet.

I always wonder this too

I don't remember.

But these things aren't that surprising considering how much westerners travel, and that people in similar social circles/with a certain cultural background are more likely to go to the same places.

Especially since they might have subconsciously decided to go to the place as a result of being influenced by the same source. So it's not like these events are random chance.

DD’s piano teacher in a gallery in Beirut (my DHs idea of a good stopover )

A former neighbour in a cafe in Amsterdam.

Someone I’d been at uni with - bumped into her on a ship in Antarctica.

In a theme park ride in Florida . Family from our road -we went past each other on a ride

Three from us:

1. On holiday in Turkey, in hotel restaurant, bumped into someone from kids' scout group

1. Walking in airport in Sri Lanka, heard my name being called - was someone I previously worked with

1. On our honeymoon in Bali, we met a woman who worked in the building next to DH's back in the UK.

Such a small world

I was in a bus station in Dehra Dun, Northern India (not the MOST touristy spot) and I looked across and saw a woman leaning out of a bus window talking to a friend. The woman in the bus was a member of my travel club in London. Another trip to India, I met an Englishman staying at the same cheap hotel as me and we travelled together for a few weeks. He turned out to live a few miles from me and had been the boyfriend of a girl in my class at school when we were younger. His father worked in the same teaching hospital as me.

When DS was in primary school, we went to a Eurocamp site in France. We were originally booked on the fastcat on the Saturday morning but due to a strike by French lorry drivers we had our booking moved to an overnight ferry in the Friday. So my DS had to be picked up from school at lunchtime Friday for a "dentist appointment" and this was sanctioned by one of the TAs.

We arrived at the campsite in the early hours of Saturday and went to the camp shop to buy breakfast. Bumped into said TA at the till. She had also had to leave at Fri lunchtime for a "hospital appointment" for exactly the same reason but had been booked on the ferry before ours.

A year later we bumped into another of his TAs in the queue for an ice cream on Shaldon beach

When I was a child, we drove about 200 miles to a holiday park. We'd just arrived, and got talking to another family who literally arrived at the same time we did.

Turned out that not only did they live about a quarter of a mile away from us, but the woman recognised my dad, they worked in the same big firm.

In the middle of the Mojave desert. I was on a university field trip. Stopped at a petrol station. Bumped into someone I used to go to school with!

Just remembered another one. I had been knocked off my motorbike (in Hampstead, London) and had a fracture dislocation of my hip. A few days later, I was lying in my hospital bed in the Royal Free and my sister came to visit me. She noticed one of the male nurses nearby and asked me his name (which I thought odd). I told her his name and she said, "Of course it is!", rose and went over to him and they fell into each other's arms. It turns out that, when her husband was running Opera Northern Ireland (he was the Chief Administrator), the nurse had been in one of the operas as an extra and she had to teach him and the others a dance (she used to be a dancer). I had even more excellent nursing care after that.

Walking through Yosemite national park I bumped into a family I know from London. They were also going to be visiting the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo after me.

The middle of the Atlantic. Bumped into a friend of my SIL.

@rosiejaune

I don't remember.

But these things aren't that surprising considering how much westerners travel, and that people in similar social circles/with a certain cultural background are more likely to go to the same places.

Especially since they might have subconsciously decided to go to the place as a result of being influenced by the same source. So it's not like these events are random chance.

YY the similar social circles/cultural background thing was what I was trying to find words to enunciate. At least half the accidental meetings I have had with people I know would be influenced by this.

Was visiting family in Rhode Island USA, got talking to a couple from NZ who told us they'd just visited England to see family, asked us if new said town. It was our hometown and turned out they were relatives of friends of ours. Very small world!

Walking down the Main Street in queenstown NZ, bumped into someone my husband sometimes works with here in Devon, UK. Neither had any idea the other was there.

While on holiday in a large North American city DH and I bumped into a former work colleague in a shopping mall. We had a brief chat as unfortunately they were going to meet people or we would have had a coffee together.