It’s a Small World After All

[Colo]

In your travels aboard have you ever had a moment where the world seems a lot smaller than you ever thought it could be? Tell us your story!

There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone
Though the mountains be wide and the oceans are wide
It's a small world after all

 

[Colo]

A few years ago I was working in the Netherlands. One sunny spring day, I found myself wandering the streets of Amsterdam taking in the beauty of the city. There was an elderly gentleman trying to snap a picture of his wife with a canal and the city in the background. They were speaking Spanish and in my awful Spanish I offered to take a shot of both of them. With a smile he handed me the camera. After the shot he complimented me on my Spanish and asked, “Where did you learn the language”? I answer, “in school, but was also lucky enough to live in Puerto Rico and was a foreign exchange student in a summer program at the University of Salamanca in 1972. His eyes light up and he said, “I was the Dean of the summer program in 1972, and who was my professor”? I said, “Luis” to which he shouted in glee, “The Mad Catalonian!” I shook my head and said, “yes that was him”.

Yes, it is a small small small world!

BTW – My girlfriend, now spouse of 39 years, left the University of Salamanca with a diploma in 1972. Me… I got a certificate of attendance. Oh well – I had lots of fun and the dean was impressed with my Spanish over 40 years later.

And look what I found! It is Luis the Mad Catalonian!

 

[Colo]

Nobody has a rare or funny encounter while traveling to share?

 

[joe]

Colo, this is a really good subject for a thread - I wish I had something good to contribute....but I don't! I guess I haven't traveled enough...

I have one instance to relate, but not really completely the same :
While attending the Salone del Gusto in Torino, we stopped at a stand with products from a European country. A conversation developed, and it turned out that one of the women there had worked in the past at a hotel in the town that is close to us (in Israel). Not many people get out this way, so that was a bit funny for us. It also happened that she had had a boyfriend here that she had lost contact with, and when we got home, we went to the address that she gave us of his parents, to see (per her request) if we could find out anything about him. I recall that they weren't at home, and we didn't manage to catch them on the phone for some reason. A bit of sleuthing turned up some results, but then....that would be telling!

 

[JustTravel]

Last thanksgiving while in Venice, one of our grandsons and his wife posted a selfie standing on top of the Rialto bridge on FB. He is stationed in Rota, Spain. So, I sent them a PM, and we ended up spending quite a bit of that weekend together in Venice!

 

[Colo]

JustTravel - I am not a facebooker, but it always amazes me how many folks have had rendezvous because of social media. The world is definitely getting smaller.

A bit of sleuthing turned up some results, but then....that would be telling!

Joe sometimes being discrete is best...
Here is a story that did not happen to me, but I saw on a thread maybe 15 years ago. How do you handle this one?

On a Caribbean travel board I use to participate on a long time ago there was a thread of one of those moments that would fit in this category. I do not remember the whole story, but I will never forget the ending.

Evidently, the boss of a small company was going off somewhere with the guys for a period of time. The lady telling the story worked for him (I think was his Secretary) had asked if she could take off while he was gone and her request was approved.

She packed up and headed to St Martin for some downtime and sunshine. While sunbathing wearing her birthday suit on Orient Beach (a clothing optional beach) she hears a voice she recognizes. Immediately, she rolled over to see and lo and behold… It is her boss who stopped with a young lady (not wife and both in birthday suits) to discuss if this was good place to set up camp for the day.

It was a very awkward moment said she! I do not think there is a pair of sunglasses in the world that would have blocked the surprise in everyone's eyes. That would be an encounter that makes the world WAY too small for me.

 

[Amy]

In 2013 during our second trip to Piemonte, a friend who lives in the Monferrato invited us to lunch, telling me she wanted to introduce us to the only other English-speaking tourists she knew of in the area. We immediately hit it off with this Australian couple, who retired early, sold everything, and have been traveling the globe ever since. Turns out we had met Jenny and Kim before in 2001--as some of the very first posters on SlowTrav.

We have since met up with Jenny and Kim whenever our travels coincide--at this point, in Italy, New York City, and London. When I grow up, I want to be like them.

 

[Andrew]

I went to an American high school in Rome with 17 students (where one of my classmates became my wife after we found each other on Facebook 35 years later; not so much a small world story, but...); among that group, I remember surprise meetings with classmates in Barcelona and New York LaGuardia airport, as well as other surprise run-ins with people I know. Not directly for me and not involving Europe, in the job from which I recently retired in Missouri, two women who work in the same building and have the same first name, one of them wheelchair-bound, saw each other unexpectedly in Florida.

 

[aap519]

A few years ago while boarding a flight from Paris to Chicago, the line got stalled for a while. We were in the 1st class section when the line got stalled. I looked down and I was standing next to Dennis Quaid. I started talking to him and he was a real nice guy.

 

[Kathy]

We were hiking the Coast-to-Coast trail in England for the second time in 2014. We met an English couple hiking the trail (backpacking!) with their 16 year old daughter, raising money for cancer. We commented on how great it was they were hiking with their daughter. (We were a bit sad because our daughter had been with us on our first C2C walk but not the second.)

The man said he had read a blog about an American family who had hiked the C2C with their younger daughter. It was my blog (or trip report) on SlowTrav!! He said it had really inspired them to do the walk.

 

[joe]

OK, just remembered another one.

We had flight tickets bought through an agent for a flight to Italy. First time we used this agent, but she was one of my wife's customers, so this had some convenience. The agent was also supposed to book the seats on the flight.
The day before the flight I discovered that my wife and I weren't seated together - there were two seats separating between us. A call to the agent got an apology, but not a change of seats.

Upon boarding the flight we asked the stewardess if there is something we could do about this. She said to get seated in our places in the meantime, and she'll see later what can be done.

When we seated ourselves we asked the person who had a seat between us and had already occupied his spot, if he was willing to exchange seats with one of us. He was kind and agreed. That left one seat between my wife and I - and us waiting to see if the person with this seat, who had not yet arrived, would also be kind enough to exchange places.

A few minutes later, we suddenly notice a friend of ours, who we had not seen in twenty years, standing in the aisle next to us. Turns out that she has the ticket to the seat between us!

So not only did my wife and I get to sit together, we also spent a nice portion of the flight - about twenty years worth - chatting about life with our surprise friend.

I'm still not decided about whether we should use that agent again.....

 

[Fletch]

1. We moved to Perth Western Australia and friends visited on their camping trip around Australia.
Two months later I was visiting my husband in Kalgoorlie ( a mining town ) and waiting at a red light to cross to a museum when they drove past!
They were also on their way to the museum and I would have run into them there too.

2. We lived in England for a year and drove to Scotland in our camper van during our holidays.
While in Edinburgh we were standing under the stands set up for the Edinburgh Tattoo sheltering from the rain when our friend walked by. They had been in Wales and decided on the spur of the moment to go to Edinburgh.

It really is a small world. A few minutes later in either of these we may not have met.

 

[Katt B]

Traveling through Europe in my college days, I got on a bus in Rothenburg, Germany to go to the next stop on the Romantic Road. I took the only empty seat next to a young man about my age. We got to talking and determined we were both from southern California. When he told me the name of the city, I said, "Oh my cousin lives in that city." Turns out that not only were they classmates, but they were in the same carpool all through high school, and my aunt had driven him to school for many years.

 

[PokeyMindy]

this was in 2007, my sister and I were enjoying the view of Florence from Piazza Michelangelo. There was an adorable little girl splashing in puddles and her dad asked her to be careful. My sister and I were smiling and they noticed and (I guess figured we were nice) asked if we could take their photo. The wife handed me her small video camera and instructed me how to take a photo with it as her regular camera was broken. She said " we've been traveling all over Europe with our daughter who plays ?violin? (can't recall)....I said, "Are you WT from Slowtrav? I'm Pokey"! and yes, it was them. (WorldTraveler I believe is what WT stood for). I believe that they are still traveling the world and their daughter ...she must be 16 or 17 now...plays in different venues and has a You Tube channel. (for the life of me I can't remember the FB page name). Anyway, it was rather wild to run into them in Florence!

 

[Kathy (Trekcapri)]

In 2005, me and my friend were trying to catch the metro (in Rome) to one of the attractions (can't remember which one it was). There was this sort of intersection underground. It was so crowded and people were moving/walking at the speed of light. We were so confused. And then I heard someone speaking in English trying to figure out where they were and what direction to go. I looked over and there was this couple with an adorable little boy and a stroller. Our eyes met and we both instantly knew that we were all in the same boat...lost!

We laughed and shared where we thought we were and chatted very briefly over the metro information and direction. Then we wished each other luck and disappeared among the hordes of people in the tunnels trying to find our way.

Several days later, we left Rome and headed to Siena to explore around Tuscany. I had then caught a cold and didn't feel up to using the bus to get around (after I struggled the other day when we caught the bus to San G.). The next day it was a bit drizzly in the morning, so we rented a fun SMART car for the day and decided to drive around the Chianti Loop route. Along the way we stopped in different interesting places. At one point we saw this lovely small town (can't remember the name now) and thought it would be a good place to explore and maybe have some lunch. We were walking in this near empty plaza and in the distance I saw a couple with a stroller and this little child walking toward us. I told my friend, they kind of remind me of that couple we saw in Rome and my friend agreed. As we got closer to each other and our eyes met, we all realize that just a few days ago we encountered each other in the crowded METRO tunnels in Rome. And now here we were in beautiful Tuscany in this little town with practically no one else around us, bumping into each other again. We agreed that it was a lovely coincidence. We shared Holiday experiences, where we are from, where we were staying, the sites we wanted to see in Tuscany and most importantly how we finally got out of the Metro in Rome. They were a lovely couple, both professors from UC Berkley. It turns out that their son also came down with a cold. We both enjoyed Rome, but we also agreed that the slower pace of the countryside was a welcoming change. They directed us to a nice restaurant that they just came from. Before we parted ways again for the second time, I asked if I could take their photo (they said yes). I'm glad I did because it was just such a fun travel memory.

Thank you for this thread. I'm enjoying reading everyone's cool it's a small world travel stories.

 

[Susie L]

We were renting an apartment in Venice over the Christmas holidays from ST favorite landlord, Contessa Anna da Schio. This was in 2005. One day, the Contessa told us that we were about to get new neighbors, as she would be checking in a very nice couple, American ex-pats who live in Paris. She introduced us to Nancy and David, who later slid a note under our door, inviting us for an aperitivo. We hit it off with them very well, and their friend, another ex-pat living in Paris. We even had a risotto cook-off one evening, and shared a number of happy hours with them. One day, on the ST forums, there was a discussion about something I can't even recall, when Americana in Parigi (AinP) posted something, and it hit me like a thunderbolt that AinP was Nancy and her husband David from Paris! Here we had known of one another on ST for years, and we never put it together until that post!

As a bonus, it turns out their ex-pat friend Pam went to high school with my cousin in New Jersey!

 

[Jan55612]

What a great story, Susie! I have stayed with the Contessa a couple of times and can picture the apartments as I imagine your fun.

 

[PokeyMindy]

We were renting an apartment in Venice over the Christmas holidays from ST favorite landlord, Contessa Anna da Schio. This was in 2005. One day, the Contessa told us that we were about to get new neighbors, as she would be checking in a very nice couple, American ex-pats who live in Paris. She introduced us to Nancy and David, who later slid a note under our door, inviting us for an aperitivo. We hit it off with them very well, and their friend, another ex-pat living in Paris. We even had a risotto cook-off one evening, and shared a number of happy hours with them. One day, on the ST forums, there was a discussion about something I can't even recall, when Americana in Parigi (AinP) posted something, and it hit me like a thunderbolt that AinP was Nancy and her husband David from Paris! Here we had known of one another on ST for years, and we never put it together until that post!

As a bonus, it turns out their ex-pat friend Pam went to high school with my cousin in New Jersey!

wow, what a fun fun story!!!

 

[TourMama]

In 2009 we were just starting a 3 generation 9 person holiday trip in Italy, and were in central Bagni di Lucca at the weekly market. My son and daughter-in-law had temporarily gone missing, but when we found them, they had just met another American at the local ATM, and were talking with her. We stopped to chat, and the stranger mentioned she lived part of the year in the nearby village of Vico Pancellorum. Something clicked in my mind - and I asked - are you Vico Girl on Slow Travel? Yes, she replied, but how did you know? Well - former STer Palma had written about a visit to her friend in Vico -- and I had remembered, and wondered. What a treasure we found at that ATM -- we were invited to visit them in their Italian home, treated to a fabulous meal at a restaurant owned by family members, joined them for a second meal at the restaurant, and explored Bagni di Lucca with the local expat. That meeting is one of my fondest memories of our family trip -- and those memories are shared by everyone in our party. Thanks for making our Bagni di Lucca stay a special one, Vico Girl! Here we are at Vico Girl's home

 

[Rome Addict]

Slow Trav was amazing! Over the years I have been approached in Rome several times by people who asked if I was Rome Addict. They had seen my picture and article on accessible Rome. My favorite was a young lady in a wheelchair. We met in foro Romano. She was about 35 and had Muscular Dystrophy. She and her husband had read my articles. Rome had always been number one on her bucket list. For years they had never thought it possible.

She said my articles gave her the courage and information to fulfill the dream.

Over the 18 years I have traveled to Rome I have seen the number of wheelchair travelers and residents increase a hundred times. From my first trip where Italians took my picture because it was so rare to see anyone in a wheelchair. Stories of people who hadn't been out of their apartments in years abound. Fast forward to 2016 where I saw school kids racing down the street pushing a friend in a wheelchair.

Pauline we did good work! We both should be proud of our small part in breaking down barriers.