Some of my favorite vacation stories are those about unexpectedly running into friends, family or acquaintances while traveling. Has this ever happened to you? It's happened to me a few times. For example, a few years ago I was standing with a friend of mine at the back of St. Peter's in Rome and I turned around and saw a familiar face. "Seth?," I said surprised. It was one of my college deans who I knew personally but hadn't seen or spoke to for a few years. We chatted a few minutes then went our separate ways. Of course a few hours later we bumped into each other again at Trevi. Back at home several months later I spoke with an old college friend and I started to tell him my story...."I was standing in Rome and I turned around and saw..." Before I could finish my story, he finished it for me. "Oh you spoke to Seth?," I assumed. He explained, "No, but I just guessed because know he's also run into Lori at the Wailing Wall and Leslie at the Louvre..." I read a travel article once which talked about these occurences which happen far more frequently than we might think. These days people are joined by their interests moreso than geography. Well there's one story for now. What's yours?

You're right - just a month ago the daughter of a friend of mine was sitting in a small sidewalk cafe in Rome when she heard her name being called. She looked up to see a girl from our hometown - a small town in Arkansas. My friend's daughter was on a college-sponsored trip, and the other girl was on her way to Pakistan with her Pakistani aunt. Neither knew the other would be in Europe. <BR>And I found out, after returning home week before last, that I had been in Salzburg in the Mozartplatz during the same hours that another woman from our town had been there. She and I are mere acquaintances, but still, it's some coincidence! <BR> OK, one more- several years ago at Disneyworld in one of the neverending lines waiting to get into the Small World ride, I came face to face with a girl I had known in high school and hadn't seen in 25 years - we had been very good friends but they lived across the state. She and I were able to converse each time we met as the line snaked around and around. These aren't great stories, but they happened...

Hamlet, you've chosen an interesting subject for discussion. I'm sure it'll prompt many responses. <BR>My wife has a flair for running into people from her past. Five years ago, as soon as we had ascended the escalator from the Gatwick Express at Victoria Station, she ran into a former co-worker from Johns Hopkins. Two mornings later in the lobby of our hotel, she encountered an Egyptian colonel she had as a student in a management program she had conducted in Atlanta, our present residence. While at breakfast in a Marriott north of Chicago, in mid conversation with me, she burst forth with someone's surname. Just seating himself at an adjoining table was a former client of hers from St. Maartin's. Most recently, she was Training Manager of the Olympic Village in Atlanta, where Olympic athletes were housed. She trained over 800 envoys and associate envoys in Olympic protocols. Invariably, wherever we now go, she encounters one of the envoys or associates. Disconcerting to me at first, I now look forward to the next unexpected encounter.

It was a Monday in Britain and alot of the larger stately mansions were closed for cleaning, so we missed seeing Blenheim(which we had seen previously anyway). Decided to see Churchill's burial area and when it became lunchtime, we drove down the road and saw The Black Swan Pub and decided to eat there. I was up at the bar to pick up menus when I heard someone call my name. In came two teacher friends of mine and a husband. They had been in the area and just decided to take a u-turn in the parking lot to turn around and go the other way, then thought the pub looked okay for lunch. Besides that, the pub had Mexican food and we were all thrilled!

When I was in Rome at the ruins of the Forum I heard my name. It was an acquaintance from my college dormitory who was doing some sort of archaeological dig. What is even funnier is that I saw the SAME girl TWO different times when I was in Quebec on a ski trip in TWO different years, once on the slopes and once in a club. There was also another college acquaintance on the same dig who I ran into. On the same trip to Rome I felt a tap on my shoulder. I just thought it was another leering Italian man (no offense to Italians but as young women, my traveling companion and I had some trouble)and there was another friend from college and his brother. We spent the rest of the evening with them and were not bothered by the Italian men again. We also ran into an acquaintance in Paris on the same trip. <BR> <BR>On a childhood trip to Mexico, my father was bothered during the whole plane trip by a familiar voice. It turned out to be a girlfriend of his younger sister's from when they were children (30 years ago) in the Bronx! It IS a SMALL world after all!

This is not my story but my daughter's story. <BR>Last year landing at Istanbul airport at midnight she bumped into two girls she knew from her home town of Brisbane Australia. These girls had worked in the US for a couple of years and were making their way around Europe. My daughter and the two girls spent the next 5 or 6 weeks together touring Turkey and Greece. All three developed a strong friendship even tho they knew one another only thru their Army Reserve days prior to this trip. Denise <BR>

Great topic. I havve a small one to add to this. My husband and I were on a Med Cruise and our first port was Monte Carlo. We were in the Grand Casino when we heard Mr "A". We turned around and there was one of our sons very good friend from high school. The lost touch when they left for college. My son had just finished saying before we left"I can't wait for our 10th reuion because I lost track of Scott. We'll we got talking and he said he was Director of a health club on a cruise ship. Yep, our ship. Needless to say I made sure I worked out every day. Hew was soooo happy to see a face from home. Small world. <BR>

Great topic. I havve a small one to add to this. My husband and I were on a Med Cruise and our first port was Monte Carlo. We were in the Grand Casino when we heard Mr "A". We turned around and there was one of our sons very good friend from high school. The lost touch when they left for college. My son had just finished saying before we left"I can't wait for our 10th reuion because I lost track of Scott. We'll we got talking and he said he was Director of a health club on a cruise ship. Yep, our ship. Needless to say I made sure I worked out every day. Hew was soooo happy to see a face from home. Small world. <BR>

These are such great stories! Mine aren't quite so good...but here I go. Soon after I returned from Europe I overheard two customers talking at work; one was saying that his daughter had been working in Greece, on Santorini, for the last few months. And I had just been there. Turns out she was working just doors down from our hotel, and we never knew it. I didn't know the girl, but my travel companion did. And at the youth hostel bar in Salzburg I joined a table of five strangers, all travelling solo, and after we had been talking awhile someone mentioned they were from Vancouver..."Hey, me too..." "No way, me too!" They all happened to be from Vancouver (and I'm from Vancouver Island). In Athens I started chatting with a guy in the youth hostel bar and he asked where I was from...when I told him he said his roommate was from the same place (not exactly a big city), but happened to be asleep. And of course, it often happened in the course of the trip that we would run into other tourists we had seen elsewhere...like two guys who had also been on Santorini were in Amsterdam at the same hostel we were at a month later. Spent the long ferry ride to Greece talking to two girls we had shared a hotel room with in Rome a week earlier (complete strangers we had met in a desperate late night search for a hotel room and whom we had no plans to meet up with again). It happens all the time, since many tourists follow similar routes, but it sure is a nice feeling, when you're far from home and missing your friends and family, to run into familiar faces, even if you don't REALLY know them.

This has been pretty funny to me to read these stories since I have this kind of luck all the time. My best one ever happened last year while my husband and I toured Italy. And so it goes...one evening we had dinner in a restaurant just a block from the Spanish Steps. On the table next to us was a sign that read "Reserved for 4 at 8:45 p.m. for Smith's (fictious name...it's a small world afterall). I said to my husband, "honey, you know, that's not a common name to be heard least of all here." He said, "Oh, why be concerened, stop being nosy." I proceeded to order my dinner but it still gnawed at me. I said again, "Honey, this is spooky, I worked with a crazy R.E. broker by that name who had a twin brother, they had quite a reputation - one was a saint and one was so God awuful that I could tell you stories that would make your head spin he was such a nightmare". So I forgot about it and proceeded with my minestrone. Not five minutes later in walks WACKO MAN (as we referred to him) with his wife and two children. I chocked on my soup and proceeded to eat the rest of my meal hiding my face. But it didn't end there. A week later we ferry over to Capri and as we descended from the boat there's WACKO MAN again with his family. This went on my entire journey. I felt like I was being haunted the entire trip and constantly looked over my shoulder. Now let's keep the topic going.......

I seem to utter the words "small world" on each trip I go on. Our first day in Rome we visited the Coloseum. The place was packed and the line for tickets was very long. My companion and I stood out front contemplating the wait. Finally, we decided to get in line. As we waited, I ventured up to the front to check out the admission options. I'm looking up at the sign and I hear my name -- it was a dear friend from college who I had lost track of, someone who above all my other friends I wished I had not let slip so far away. Needless to say, we now correspond regularly -- it was one of the highlights of my trip!

In June we took a 15 day Globus European tour. When in Venice we were shopping in St. Mark's Square among thousands of other people, and my husband spotted my cousin and his wife! Unbelievable, neither of us knew the other was there! We both said we couldn't get away from our family - even half-way around the world!!!!! We had to get our picture taken, as no one would ever believe us!

This kind of stuff happens to my parents all the time. They were on a cruise in Alaska. The ship had 2 seatings for dinner and everyone was assigned a table in a completely random manner. My parents hooked up with another couple they particularly liked from their dinner table. My mother has a way of striking up conversations with people and she did so with their waiter-his children and their grandchildren being the common denominator. They agreed to bring pictures of their kids/grandkids the next night. After comparing pictures, my parents new found friends and tablemates asked to see the pictures, too. That's when the lady said, "Oh my! Chaz look, it's Molly Donnelly and the boys!" Turns out they have a lake house on the same lake as my in-laws and their daughter and my husband spent summers growing up together! Neither couple ever used first names when talking about us so they never caught on to their "connection." <BR> On their way to Spain, my Dad sat with a lady he went to college with. On their way back, he sat next to the daughter of a colleague of his. <BR> Another time they ran into a guy my Mom taught with briefly at the beginning of her career. There is definately something to the "Six degrees of separation" thing! <BR>

We were in Switzerland and Italy from June 17 to July 4 and wondered if (as we ALWAYS seem to do) would run into someone we knew back home. We travel to get away from home and don't necessarily care to run into anyone. After reading an earlier post re. WACKO MAN and knowing a similar person ourselves, I'm sure thankful our trip was 'wacko-free'

This story made me stop and think about the world: In May of 1968, my parents were vacationing (from Prague, where we lived at the time) in Switzerland. On a Monday morning at around 11:30 am, they stopped at a nice scenic overlook to admire the vista spread before them. Another car with a young couple of about the same age stopped also, and the two couples started talking. Well, kind of talking, because my parents spoke Czech (and Russian), but not so much German, and the other couple was German. and spoke no slavic languages. They made do with hand signals and smiles, exchanged addresses, and eventually moved on. They kept in touch over the years, mostly with Christmas cards and such - nothing too regular. In May of 1991, my parents went to Italy. They like small towns, back roads, and cute churches well off the beaten path. On a Monday morning at around 11:30 am, they were looking up at the frescoes in a tiny forgotten church, when my father felt a tap on his shoulder and the words, "...is that you?!?" He turned around, and yes, it was the same couple. Neither one knew the other couple was planning to vacation in Italy, let alone in some unknown town in some little-visited region. They had lunch together, and then went on their ways. A few more years go by, a few more Christmas cards, and then my parents go on a trip, this year in May, to Greece. You can guess where this story is going. My parents were doing their usual thing again, exploring the backroads and admiring the small side of Greece. On a Monday morning, at around 11:30, they happened to be in another church (I guess a good place to be in Greece's sunny heat), again admiring the display of religious icons. Out of the blue, a voice came from behind them, "Oh my goodness, can this be you?!?" Amazingly, it was. The same two couples, 30 years almost to the hour after they first met, meeting again by chance in a remote town in a remote area in a country neither of them live in or near. This time, I think they went for wine. <BR> <BR>I think experiences like this are a message - we just don't know what the message is! As my father noted, the mathematical likelihood of this happening is "none." What does it all mean?

<BR>It has happened to me several times. Last spring, I was in Madrid, at the Prado, standing in front of Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and turned around to see a good friend from college that I hadn't seen since a wedding three years before. We both had studied the painting in our college Art History class and had gone to the museum just to see it!!! A couple of years before, in a small restaurant in Saigon, I ran into a couple of friends from business school. We all went into the restaurant because we had all heard that it was one of the few places (then, at least) that served Diet Coke.

It probably isn't a coincidence that like minded people fine one another time after time. It is a great example to governments around the world that people meet, even briefly, and correspond for years. I met my friend from England while lost in Venice; we have continued to correspond over the years and have visited twice.

I know a fellow who was in a restaurant of a hotel in Iran (shows you how long ago this was) with a flight attendant, and in walked his in-laws...

I'm enjoying everyone's "small world" stories. I especially love that so many of them mention Rome (or Italy), my favorite European city. It makes me believe that all roads lead to Rome! Someone else brought up running into travelers on similar itineraries. That happened to me on one trip throughout Italy, but the more interesting one happened in the US. In the summer of 1994 I was driving cross country with a friend. We were at Grand Canyon and decided to take one of those small airplane rides over the canyon. We shared the plane with 4 German guys. My friend didn't handle the flight all that well (if you know what I mean) so as soon as we got off the plane we said bye and I went with her to her to pull herself together. The next day we left GC for Las Vegas where we had reservations at the MGM Grand, which was the largest hotel in the US at the time. We got to the hotel, dropped our bags in the room and headed straight for the pool. I went over to one of the SEVERAL bars at the HUGEST hotel and there I saw 2 of the guys from our plane ride! Prior to this we never talked to the guys about our trips or itineraries. They didn't even plan to stay at the hotel but were sent over when another hotel messed up their reservation - and I normally wouldn't be there since I'm not even a pool person! <BR>Oh - if anyone's interested, the article I mention at the top of the thread is available online. It's called "Kindred Spirits Find Each Other in Strange Places" by John Flinn from San Fran Examiner 1/14/96. Go to www.examiner.com and do the search. <BR>

(sending up) <BR>