Leslie_B

Saw one of our fellow church members from Tucson in Disneyland a few years ago. Almost didn't recognize them as we don't normally see them outside of church!

quimbymoy

my boyfriend and i ran into an old friend (literally) on a hiking trail in portland! we were shocked since we didn't know where our friend had moved and of all places, at one of the very many hiking trails in the city!

faye1

We live in North Carolina. We took our kids to England & Scotland in the summer of 2001. While in the gift shop of the Edinburgh castle, we ran into one of my daughter's classmates and his parents. It gives you a weird feeling - like you really aren't on the other side of the world, like you thought you were! Two years ago, we were in Yosemite, sitting on the porch of one of the buildings there in the valley floor. Someone called out my husband's name - it was a friend/previous co-worker.

jillc1

davos switzerland during the millenium; took a ski trip with the ski club of great britian; was the only american in their group; was having a ball; feeling pretty cool and hip and unique. all of the sudden this group of 30 dentists from joisy show up with their wives and families; turns out one of their daughters there on the trip worked for my company too; lived 3 miles from me; and her boss was my good friend who lived 3 floors below me!

og719

Sitting in the Bottom's Up bar in Kowloon in December of 1972 and across the round bar from me is a guy I graduated high school with in Oklahoma City in 1968. Hell of a place to run into another Okie....

nadyam

I'm pretty sure I can top you ALL
Really.

I'm an expatriot of a former Soviet Union country - Belarus, and lived here in the States for about 10 years, ever since leaving.
I work for a small consulting firm in Chicago area - one day I notice a resume of a candidate that has a familiar (Russian) last name, very unique name. The only person I know with that name - and it's odd I remembered, is my CLASSMATE from GRADE SCHOOL in Belarus - we shared a desk for about a year.
Next week the candidate walks in for an interview - I ask him where he went to grade school - he gives me a wild look, and guess what??... he is that pesky little boy who sat at my desk in 2nd grade. He left our school in 3rd grade, to move to US. We had a good laugh, talking about our school and the teachers.
No, he did not get hired, if you wonder (reasons that have nothing to do with me).

Story #2 - I'm dating a guy for sometime, he invites me on a double date with his bud and bud's girlfriend. I'm not crazy about doble dates and hanging out with strangers an entire day, but reluctantly I agree.
We go to meet the couple - the girl turns out to be someone I knew from HIGH SCHOOL! in Belarus. We scream and hang all over each other and the dudes think we have surely lost it.
But talk about coincidence!
What ARE the chances of this occurrence??

I guess not such bad, since there are so many Russians in Chicago

That's life for ya.

n

Annushka

I am also an expatriate from the former USSR. I lived in Ohio for a little while, where I met a girl from Yoshkar-Ola, Russia. I told her I know another Russian girl from Yoshkar-Ola, she went to school with me at Clemson, and everybody hated her, she was a real b*tch. She tells me she had a classmate who fits this description, and she is in the US now. It turned out that it was one and the same person.

cybertraveler

I ran into the woman who lived next door to me growing up in upstate New York on the beach in Grand Cayman. It's odd how often this type of thing seems to happen!

myo

One of the strangest coincidences ever:

I live in Memphis, TN and about 6 years ago was walking my dog, who is an Otterhound, down the street I lived on at the time. Some guys pulled up next to me in a car and were being less than gentlemanly. All of a sudden this random girl comes across the street and acts like she knows me in an effort to get the guys in the car to move on and leave me alone. I thanked her for being aware of the situation, and for helping me out. She asked about my dog, and then we parted ways. TWO YEARS LATER, I found myself teaching ESL in the Czech Republic in the small city of Pilzen. One night, a bunch of us were sitting around talking about where we were from, sharing pictures from home etc. I had a picture of my dog with me and all of a sudden this girl snatches it out of my hand and says, "Oh my God, you are the girl that was walking in midtown Memphis being heckled by those guys in the car!!! I remember your dog! I'm the girl who came across the street to help you!" She was teaching ESL in the same program, too! RANDOM. We have remained dear friends ever since and she was even in my wedding!

klw25

Loved that last story!
We were in Disney World last year (we're from Massachusetts) and ran into a guy my husband works with and his family. They also live in the same town as us. We were in a gift shop at Animal Kingdom after the park had already closed. The same trip we ran into our next door neighbor and his relatives twice--once at a Disney hotel that neither of us were staying at and the other at Magic Kingdom.

Another time, I was 16 and my best friend and I were flying to Florida to spend a week at my aunt's. We had to switch planes in Atlanta. As we were waiting for our connecting flight in the Atlanta airport, I noticed a man across the terminal who looked like my step-uncle. But as I usually only saw him once or twice a year, I wasn't sure. Besides, I figured why would he be in Atlanta. He also lives in Massachusetts. A couple of weeks later, he called my step-dad to ask him if I had by any chance been in Atlanta. He had spotted me too, but like me, figured I must just look like his niece. And he was afraid that if he approached two young teenage girls traveling alone and he was wrong, we'd have airport security after him for harassing us!

halb

A few years ago we went to a wedding in Greece of a good friend of my sons. After the wedding we travelled around Greece, flew to Rome, spent time in Orvieto then went to Siena. We ran into my father-in-laws close friend and neighbor on the main drag in the midst of a parade. The next day we went to Florence. Dinner that night we randomly picked a nice restaurant near our hotel. We went in and were seated in a non-desirable section in the front room as we didn't have reservations. About 2 minutes later one of my son's other close friends who was also at the wedding with us in Athens the week before shows up (with reservations) and so we bought them dinner in the nicer back room. They flew from Greece to Venice before ending up in Florence.

Small world.

sylvia3

Vacationed with my sister a few times--4 times at exotic places, she met someone she knew. The very end of the trail in Bandelier National Monument, a tiny alcove in a tiny casino in Vegas, the top of the pyramid at Chitzen Itza, and the parking lot in Tulum. (I never see anyone I know.)

elsunshine

While in Japan, in Nara, to be exact, my husband and I met a couple whom we had known for years in Illinois. They were feeding deer about fifty yards away from where we were standing.

And then, althought we were on a totally different schedule, and with a different group of people, we saw these same folks in Kyoto two days later.

The next time we saw them was at a hotel in Chicago about a year and a half later.

One must travel with a clear conscience.

NatalieM

This isn't exactly the same thing but...We were at St. Peter's Square in Rome for Palm Sunday in March. There were 3 of us in a crowd estimated to be over 100,000, waiting all morning to see the Pope. One of my best friends here in Utah was up at 4 a.m. feeding her baby, and saw us in a live news report on CNN. Weird!

dwsjas89

Once on secluded beach in St. Croix my husband and I bumped into his best friends brother. This spring while at a baseball game in Tampa (Sox vs Devil Rays) the people sitting in front of us were the original owners of my parents house (very small New England town). They then asked where we lived (same town) and I said "Oh on "x" street and the lady said "Near Dr. Smiths house? To which I replied, "No, IN Dr. Smiths house." Wierd.

When my sister was in a small pub in Ireland a guy walked by her wearing a college jacket from her (small) college. She said she just about mauled the guy...come to find out he was on his honeymoon so she let him go.

highflyer

My favorite story along these lines was when I was with my boyfriend in Merida, Venezuela for a friend's wedding (to a local girl).

The night before we had pizza at a small restaurant and I spotted a former lecturer of mine from Portsmouth Poly (UK). I'd graduated 5 years earlier.
He was on a secondment at the University there and although he didn't remember me he was pleased to be recognised!
He turned up at the church the next day to see the wedding which was unusual...how often do you see several men in kilts and a bagpiper at a church in Venezuela?

sks

In France at our hotel (which hotel I don't know - I was only 6 years old!). We had just walked outside the hotel and were standing around (my parents must have been figuring where to go or something!). I looked through the window and saw some family friends checking in! I think my parents knew they would be in Europe, but not in France at the same time.

Another time in NYC (we're from OR) with my mom we were taking a lonnnggg walk through Central Park and stopped at the big fountain (forgot the name) to sit and have something to drink for a few minutes. A couple of women sat next to us but we didn't really notice them until one of them recognized us in disbeilef. They were just acquaintances - but it was still shocking!

This one doesn't involve me, but while my mom and her boyfriend were on some sort of sightseeing tour in Spain, they chatted with a nice woman during the tour. They did not keep in touch with her but about one year later they were in NYC and the same woman was on their Tenement Museum tour! Crazy.

klw25

I just remembered another crazy run-in that happened to a friend while I was with her. While in college, my roommate, my DH (then boyfriend) and I drove to Orlando from Boston for a long weekend in October (yes, we were insane!). We were in Georgia and I was driving, she was in the passenger seat, and DH was taking his turn sleeping in the backseat. Suddenly, she screamed. She had looked out the passenger window as we were passing a car, and her grandfather was driving the car! Her grandparents were on their way from New York to Florida for the winter. She quickly ducked down so they wouldn't see her. She figured her grandfather would be so shocked if he looked over and saw her that he would get into an accident! Plus, they had no idea that she'd be anywhere near Florida because she hadn't told anywhere in her family where she was going. The odds that not only would we pass them on the highway but that she would choose that one moment to look our her window...go to be pretty slim.

suzi56

Yes, I have!! So you have to make sure you are with the "right" person even far away from home!

ncgrrl

A friend of mine was returning home from vacation. While at baggage claim she saw her boss and a co-worker 'together'. Neither had been scheduled for an out-of-office work event. She decided she didn't want to see them so she went in to the bathroom for a few minutes.

What I miss by not checking luggage.