Funny coincidences

I accompany young instrumentalists at various venues. One of them participated in an Honors Recital 2 days before we left for our Athens and the Heart of Greece tour; the student's mother and I were talking about that and I mentioned Rick Steves. She then told me that when Rick visited the Blue Grotto of Capri he was in the boat ahead of the one she and her husband were in. They spoke for a while and had their picture taken with him. It just goes to show that it's a small world and Rick appears to be in every corner of it.

My coincidence has nothing to do with RS. We were doing some hiking on the Matterhorn in Switzerland in 2001. For whatever reason, the trail we were hiking on was deserted. (possibly because it went straight up towards the mountain) After a couple of hours, we saw one lone hiker coming down towards us. As he approached, he asked in German if we spoke English. Obviously we did. We enjoyed a nice visit and it turned out he lived 2 miles from our house here in the states. He was on the last week of a 2 week backpacking trip. (hiking from Chamonix to Zermatt).

Not a Rick connection…We had just arrived in Rome after a sleepless flight. We decided to go to Termini by metro to get our train tickets to Orvieto for when we were going to be leaving. We wanted to keep moving to stay awake. Having never been to Rome or Italy we were on high alert for pickpockets. When the metro stopped at the station I was walking out the door. Hubby was behind me. A man reached between us and grabbed my arm. Hubby was about to deck the guy until he said my name. He was a former co-worker who had an office across the hall from mine. We both loved to travel and talked about it often. We no longer worked in the same location and I had no idea he would be there. He was traveling with his family and we only had a minute to chat. The funny thing is that we lived in the same small suburb of Sacramento for over 20 years and the only time I ever ran into him there was at my niece’s high school graduation. His daughter was in the same graduating class. It’s a small world.

Truly a small world!
My Best Of Paris guide in April, was Rolinka, a Dutch gal. Weeks after returning home, I watched the RS Amsterdam show and realized the woman who Rick was having dinner with was Rolinka. (We go to Amsterdam in July). I only recognized her by her voice, as she did look quite different.

Not really a coincidence, but I was talking to a guy on a dating app while in the U.K. last month and I’m now referring him for a job with my company’s London office.

Such fun stories and chance meetings. BTW, my husband called the Slovenian today and we are meeting up in Ljubljana. He told us that the RS show was filmed about ten years ago, and I thought he only left 6 years ago. Time really does fly.

Ran into my neighbors at one of the Hawaiian airports a few years back. We both had no idea of the other’s travel plans.

In Venice we ran into a man we knew from our gym back home. He didn't introduce the attractive young lady with him. Wasn't his daughter so it must have been his "niece".

Also met a neighbor in the Atlanta airport. We were both going to Ft. Lauderdale on different flights to take different cruises. Neither of us knew about the other's plans.

In Aix-en-Provence, ran into three couples we knew who were traveling together. They were from our town (pop. 20,000) in Colorado.

Also not Rick related....in 2001, my daughter ( who was 16 years old at the time) and I were at the top of the Eiffel Tower when we heard our names called. It turned out that it was the parents of a girl who had been a friend of my daughter when we lived in Texas. Both families had moved to different parts of the country in 1999. They were on our return flight from Paris to Dallas/Ft. Worth, too.

I have bumped into people I know from home a few times in other parts of the world.
Saw a person I worked with getting off a sailboat in Turkey; have seen people in Florence that I knew vaguely from my workplace; and been on flights home from Europe with people I knew whom I did not expect to see.
You can travel, but you can't hide! :)

I have another one;
In2012, we were on a D-day with 2 other couples who were traveling together. As we left Bayeux a couple of days later we ran into them at a gas station. We were both heading to Paris. As we left, I jokingly said: "See you in Paris, I hear it is a small town". After checking into our hotel near Rue Cler, we headed over to get our first peak at the Eiffel Tower. We cut down a residential street to get out of the crowds. Halfway down the street we met the two other couples coming the opposite directions. The next day we were out near Notre Dame and there they were eating at an outdoor cafe. Maybe Paris really is a small town!

We’ve randomly run into people we know from home many times. It’s always amazing to me. How did we travel so far and end up at the same random spot at the same exact moment??

This also makes me wonder how many people we missed running into by only minutes?

A bit off the subject, but still fun, are the chance encounters with strangers in Europe we’ve met and started chatting with, exchanged contact info with and stayed in touch with who then became like family to us. For many decades we’ve had many friends like this… they come here to visit us and we go to visit them. It has made life sweeter knowing all of them.

Our trip to England this Sept is for the sole purpose of visiting a couple we became close friends with over time and are now family. Met them waiting for the Circumvesuviana train in Sorrento 16 yrs ago.

A few years ago we were in Hawaii with a couple from our neighborhood. The husband and I went diving and our spouses don't dive, so they met for breakfast at the hotel. Walking through the lobby they ran into a woman who lived a couple blocks away from us and who knew all of us. She gave them a very curious look when they exchanged greetings. LOL Later that day all four of us crossed paths with her. She was visibly relieved, and said as much, to see all four of us.

Love that, Carolyn!

We did the RS Best of Switzerland in 2016 and enjoyed Murren so much that we returned on our own for a week in mid October 2017. The town was pretty much deserted that late in the season. On Saturday evening we went to mass at the little Catholic church. We were the first to arrive and sat in the last pew in the back. Local people filed in and took their seats. Just before mass started two ladies came in. I poked my BF and whispered that we knew the women. Turned out it was my ‘buddy’ from the Best of Switzerland tour and her friend. Small world.

Nothing to add, just that I love all of your stories! Small world indeed. 😊