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The chances of running into someone that you know or someone that you have mutual friends or acquaintances with on another side of the world were probably once much scarcer than they are now. In fact, running into someone at a famous landmark in a faraway country is quite possible. Or finding mutual connections while being away from your base with strangers that you haven’t met before is also more than likely to happen. Six degrees of separation is real, and so are the stories that Twitter users shared in response to Michael Redmond’s post about being asked by a random taxi driver if he knows Sean Corcoran, after hearing his Dublin accent. And well, he knew him.
Michael Redmond, who goes by @redmondmichael1 on Twitter, is known for his role in the now probably classic Irish TV series Father Ted, where he portrayed Father Stone. His post has received over 367k likes and more than 1.8k comments at the time of writing. We have handpicked the most serendipitous stories that prove how small the world actually is, so vote for your favorite ones.
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LadyGrimm 3 years ago
I took a tour of Chichen Itza, small random group of perhaps ten folks. Mostly other people from the States, couple of Europeans. At one point we went around the circle and said where we were all from. One lady said my state, so I asked her what area. My area. What town? My town. She lives behind my library and I see her at the grocery store sometimes!
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Denise B. 3 years ago
Years ago in a very out of the way B&B in Scotland, my husband, a high school teacher, was sitting at breakfast with the host family (I was back in the room). He tells me later that the teenage daughter had a pen-pal in America. Oh? Where? At the very same California high school he had taught in! For context: There are approximately 26,700 high schools in the US!
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#22
Pantea 3 years ago
I worked at a restaurant in a small village somewhere in Germany, as a waiteress. The owner was Iranian, like myself. His uncle came to visit from Sweden and immediately we knew we had seen eachother before. Turned out he was the former owner of the stationery store I used to buy my school supplies from, in Tehran.
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Seán Baron 3 years ago
Would that have been the Christmas episode with Katherine Jenkins I wonder?
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fogharty 3 years ago
I got a job photographing at a convent and school (photo of students doing lessons and such) and was chatting with the equivalent of the Mother Superior of the order. She asked me about my last name, where my dad was from etc. Then she asked if I knew Bill [Lastname] and I told her he was my uncle, to which she replied that she had dated him in high school. Of course i had to say well, at least my Uncle Bill could take comfort in that he lost her to a better Man.
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Rose the Cook 3 years ago
Checking into a hotel in Belgrade years ago the desk clerk was acting very familiar. I thought he was just a sleazy type until he said, "You don't recognize me do you? I'm Peter from next door to your parent's old house." I hadn't seen him for ten years but he remembered me.
Janna 3 years ago
Moved to the UK 12 years ago from the Netherlands.Took my 3 year old to a random playground in the next village from ours, to have change of scene. Heard a dad speak Dutch to his kid and struck up a conversation. Turns out we both read the same subject at the same university in the Netherlands, one year apart. We were members of the same student society. His gf at the time lived in the same student flat as I did and he used to hang out is the same local bar. We did not recognise each other at all, but must have crossed paths at some point. Also, he lived in another village and had stopped because his kid spotted the playground and wanted to explore.
Robert T 3 years ago
Many years ago, we were on holiday on Cyprus, visiting Nicosia. My dad didn't want to have to try and find somewhere to park our hire car in the centre, so he parked in a residential street just off the main road. I dutifully copied down the street name in Greek, so we could find it again, and we walked into the city. It was a longer walk than we thought, so we decided to get a taxi back. We went to the taxi rank and showed the street name to one of the drivers. A bit of a kerfufflle went on in Greek and he asked "why do you want to go there?". My dad explained that he had parked our car there under the shade of a tree. Another driver then says "You park under my trea?". We thought it was a joke. Anyway, the first driver agreed to take us and when we arrived at the car, he told us that we were parked outside the other driver's house! It was indeed his tree!
ADHORTATOR 3 years ago
We met two of our kids teachers in front of a church in Harlem NY.... We are from France
Sue Hazlewood 3 years ago
Was on a tour in Europe and the group was all sitting down for a meal in Amsterdam when I heard my name. It was a guy I worked with many years ago, on the same tour.
marianne eliza 3 years ago (edited)
Department Christmas season lunch at restaurant. Female 2nd level manager, a very cool woman and excellent people person, brings along a girlfriend. We're all seated at long rectangular tables and I happen to be across and over 1 from manager and friend. Over hear conversation about friend's relationship. She's talking about what he does, owns restaurant X in town Y. Now my ears are up because my very married uncle is one of the owners. I interupt them and ask if she is talking about John Doe. She says yes. I reply that he is my uncle who is very married to my aunt and has 7 kids. (most of them grown and out of the house at this point). That put paid to any more conversation for 2 people on either side of all of us. No questions and no follow up occurred to any of the parties.
Miss Frankfurter 3 years ago
I was in grade 5 during Canada's centennial year, 1967. I had the most wonderful teacher and to celebrate Canada's birthday he and his wife were going to bicycle across the country, starting in Vancouver B.C. The night before they left they were staying at a campground there and didn't have much with them because they had to carry everything on the bikes or their backs. A family was camping right next to them and the family ask he and his wife to join them for dinner. Introductions were made and the father said "Im (his name)". Very uncommon last name. My teacher said, "That's interesting. I have a girl in my class by that last name" The dad asked him what the first name is. My teacher told him my first name. He said, "That's my niece."
Maroon 3 years ago
Was in Italy 2 years ago visiting relatives and I accompanied my father to a dinner where he met up with old school friends and their families. I talked to one of the wives of my father's friends about my dissertation in archaeology and about one specific author who is one of the main contributors regarding my topic... It turned out that it was her!!! I was so mindblown
Frances M 3 years ago
On my honeymoon I went to an Irish bar in San Diego and the singer started playing “living next door to Alice”. Well, as any Irish person will tell you, there’s a particular way you sing the chorus. The singer stopped and said “there’s some real Irish in tonight!”. Later we got talking to him when we went up to ask for a particular song and it turns out he was Irish himself and used to live on the road directly behind my MIL. so close you could have just yelled a conversation between them.
WildHoneyPie 3 years ago
Years ago I was walking out of work with my boss (in New Mexico). I was chatting about my parents. She asked where they were from and I told her a small town in Ohio nobody really knew, Piqua. She tells me "I was born there!"
Beuska 3 years ago
I live in Hungary, I remember one summer we went to the lake Balaton with my friends to a small city, not a very significant or fancy place. There was a wine festival where we sitted next to some Italian guys. I was really surprised what they were doing there as this city is not really a tourist-known place. We were chatting and they asked me I have ever been to Italy. I was actually, to an exchange in Viterbo, also a small, not very well-known place 100 km far from Rome. They said they were from Viterbo, I could not believe it. One of the guy asked me if I wanted to see his ID, and he was really from Viterbo. :) I was amazed :)
Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
I actually have a story for this. So background, my parents divorced when I was really young, dad remarried and later emigrated. Fast forward some years, I was 17 and went to a high school dance, emailed some pics of me with my best friend to my dad. He emailed back "Is that Dean Donald's son?" Turns out our dads used to work together, were pretty good friends, and still had contact occasionally. Nobody made the connection until my dad saw those photos.
Stannous Flouride 3 years ago
I was in Bangkok in 1999 watching The Matrix in a bar with a bunch of other foreigners from my hostel and we decided to go to an internet cafe to check our emails. A block away I realized I'd left behind a Thai magazine I'd bought at the bar and went back to get it. Passing through an alley passage under a building I ran into my neighbor from two doors away in San Francisco. We were the only people there and neither of us had known the other was in Bangkok. A few seconds difference in either of our paths and we'd have completely missed each other.
Christian Karcher 3 years ago
Summer holidays in the US with my family, we were living in Germany. Visited a remote tourist information centre in the Monument Valley. Signed the visitor book. Two entries above mine was the entry of a classmate of mine. As I turned around I spottet him in the souvenir shop. Neither of us knew we were in the US. Thousands of kilometres from home, same day, same time, same spot.
Kenny Kulbiski 3 years ago
I'm from one of those low populated fly over states. Years ago I literally bumped into a classmate in a bar in the Philippines. We never had much in common and still didn't so it was " hey, nice to see you " and we both moved on after a couple of minutes.
Bex 3 years ago
Last one... in grad school I met my now BFF, April. This is in Massachusetts, but I grew up in RI. Her grandmother lived on the water; her backyard sloped to her own private beach. We would go over there and swim all the time and one day when we're talking with her grandmother, she mentions she grew up in RI. I ask her where and she says EP (the same town I grew up in). She went to the same HS as me, my sister, both my parents, and my Mom's mother (Nana) and aunt (my Great Aunt Mary). Grandma asks about my Mom's family name and turns out she was friends with my Nana and Aunt Mary when they were kids. She even asked after Ruth, we was my Nana and Aunt Mary's sister who passed away when she was 12. Years later I found my Nana's HS Senior yearbook, and April's grandma was also in it as a Senior. Turns out they drifted apart as they grew up, but they all went to school together for 12 years.
Bex 3 years ago
Another big one... my parents graduated HS in 1964/1965, in the same town and school that I also graduated from (1996). In 2016 mom and I go to this little Greek place for lunch. One of the people working there (Chris) is cleaning the tables around us and we all start chatting. He's super friendly and talkative and the subject goes to kayaking. I say I've always wanted to try that. He offers to teach me, we exchange numbers, and the next week we're on the water. 3 years later, he's one of my best friends and talking w Mom and Dad, my Dad says, "I think I know his father." Now, I grew up in RI, which is tiny to begin with, so you always see people you know in the most random places. But turns out my Dad didn't know his father. BUT, my Mom and Dad hung out with Chris' grandfather and great uncle in HS. And C's grandfather was my Dad's boss for a few years. And C's Mom and sister used to babysit me and my sister when we were really little. Tiny RI, tiny world.
Dr Nostromo 3 years ago
I don't know how true it is but I heard that if you meet a random person on the street, the chance of you knowing each other is very slim. However, the chance that you have a common acquaintance is about 50%. Considering everyone we've met in our lifetime, I supposed that's possible.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Weirdest thing I found out was my randomly assigned uni roommate being a second cousin. Her branch of the family didn't get along with my branch, so we found new roommates and we never spoke again.
carra rau 3 years ago
1. I was part of a traveling singing ensemble in college. Was in Madagascar meeting some other Americans. The guy across from me looked really familiar. He had been a part of the same ensemble 3 years before me. His picture was on some of the group’s promotional material. 2. I went to a small private university in Oklahoma. Another time in Madagascar, overheard some Americans talking about my university. Turns out they were parents of one of my friends. 3. Same trip to Madagascar, talking to same group of Americans found out one of them dated my best friend from my hometown!
Little Wonder 3 years ago
I might have shared this one here before, but anyway. A former workmate of mine was originally from Malta and went back every few years to see her extended family. She was chatting to a waitress who said "Oh you're from Melbourne? You might know my uncle!". My workmate explained Melbourne is big and the chances of knowing the man were very slim, but when the waitress told her his name my workmate had to say "Oh. Yes, he's my hairdresser".
Lily Mae Kitty 3 years ago
I grew up in one state and moved to another for 5 years and came back to home state. I'm managing a shop in a mall and one day my dentist from the other state walks in and says "What are you doing here?" Turns out he visits my home state twice a year and comes into this shop specifically every time. Another time, I was living in that other state and was at a college graduation in yet a different nearby state and ran into a girl I worked with 15+ years before in home state.
tomruns12 3 years ago
I've got a bunch of these stories. Once on a train in Mexico The man sitting across me used to live in the town I'm from. Once at a coffee shop in LA that I had never been to, the owner came running our of the back screaming my friend from (my home town). I don't remember him but he remembered me even knew my sister. I just bought a classic car online and the person i bought it from bought it from someone in my town. He didn't remember the persons name but I plan to look him up and let him see his old car again.
Rhon Young 3 years ago
2001 we were in Germany. On a castle tour the guide asked our daughter something. After she answered a voice from behind said "Are you guys Aussie's?" After the tour we chatted for a while, also bumped into each other the next day. I felt like I knew the names but could place where from. When I spoke to family back home it turns out the that husband was my uncles best friend.
TheTopTenz 37 3 years ago
Dinner reservation at EPCOT in Florida. We see a family also waiting for a reservation at this restaurant and start to chat with them. The next day we go to Hollywood Studios. We are waiting outside the bathroom when we see the family again! But it gets even weirder, because a few days later we see them again at another dinner reservation at Universal Studios. Seeing the same family three times within a week blew my mind.
Nat Hedley 3 years ago
A friend of mine and her boyfriend went on holiday and they struck up a friendship with the couple in the cabin next door. Next year, different place, different time of year, same couple next door.
Lady Vader 3 years ago (edited)
I was driving for Lyft for a short time a few years back. I picked up a passenger and of course we got stuck in LA traffic for over an hour trying to get to the airport. We're both chatty people so we struck up a conversation. Long story short, it turns out her ancestors owned mine in South Carolina a couple of hundred years ago. I was just amazed by the coincidence but she felt absolutely terrible and left a huge tip. #lyftreparations
Rachel Tucker 3 years ago
I've met the same family 3 times. Made friends with the kids on a holiday one summer at one Greek island, then at a different island a year later. Different dates, just complete coincidence. We then bumped in to them at Drayton Manor years later on a day out and it felt a bit weird.
LH25 3 years ago
We were in the elevator at the Eifel tower. A couple of women about my mom's age also were speaking English, so we did the "where are you from". We start with Seattle, they said they were from a small town about 150 miles south of the city. Mom says, "that's where I grew up". Turns out one of the women was in my mom's older sister's class several years, and remembered mom's family. We also ran into a family in Austria who live in the same town we did, and use walking trails we do too.
Bex 3 years ago
Met a guy (he was 36, I was 34) online who was from Scotland (when I met him he was living in the US, in the town next to mine, which is near Boston, and had only been living here for a few years). We dated for about 4 months, and didn't talk after we broke up. 5 years later, my bestie and I take a month-long trip to Scotland, which included staying at a hotel (for 4 nights) that used to be a working castle. Less than a month after we get home, the Scottish ex randomly texts me. He had no idea I had just been to Scotland. We get together and get to talking and it turns out the castle we stayed in was the place where he had his first job when he was 15, and we were staying about 3 miles from the house he grew up in and where his Mom still lives.
Lauren Caswell 3 years ago
I worked in a photo and print shop in the town centre, where the cruise ship passengers are dropped off and picked up by buses, so lots of tourists. I once had one dude who looked at me funny, then asked me if I was from Ireland. I'm Not, I'm kiwi born and kiwi accent, but my dad moved to nz from Ireland so I'm half Irish. Told him I was half Irish anyway, but how did he know? "You look irish". Didn't really get it. But I watched a movie a few years later filmed in Ireland and I kept seeing women in the background who looked like me!! Who knew you could 'look irish'?
Brett Connor 3 years ago
Was on Maui in Lahina back in 82 for 6 months. Met a guy "Michael" there who was from San Fran working at the Hyatt on Kapanali beach. Some 15 years later I was in San Fran for a workshop. One of the local gals and I headed downtown taking the metro. When the doors opened Micheal was getting off. I grab the gal who was already on the train and pulled her out. She was like (WTF) until she realized I knew this guy.
Jackie Porter 3 years ago
Before I was born my parents and sister emigrated from the north of England to Australia. My dad didn't lose his Lancashire accent at all whilst we lived there. During our life there we all went on a holiday touring as much of the country as we could. We were in the middle of nowhere stopping to get fuel and water from an old run down service stations. There was an old guy sat outside the shop with his had pulled down low just dozing as it was unbearably hot. He was wrinkled and brown as a nut thanks to being in the sun constantly. Apparently I ran off from my dad and he yelled 'Come back here you little bugger!' in his broad Lancashire accent. This old guy looked up and said 'Ee lad I know where thas is from' in an equally broad Lancashire accent. Turns out he used to live 20 minutes away from where we did and he knew my grandfather.
My O My 3 years ago (edited)
My parents lived next to a farm when my mum convieved me. They moved to the next town shortly before I was born. Moved to NZ when I was 18months old. "Moved" to London when I was 5. After a couple of weeks moved back to germany. Fast foreward a couple of years. I married the farmers son from the farm next door
Tess the ferret 3 years ago
Not as unlikely as the others, but my brothers friends dad hired a financial advisor. They got chatting(cos who wouldnt) and found out that the advisor is my uncle. I hadnt even realised that was his job!
Rose the Cook 3 years ago
Checking into a hotel in Belgrade years ago the desk clerk was acting very familiar. I thought he was just a sleazy type until he said, "You don't recognize me do you? I'm Peter from next door to your parent's old house." I hadn't seen him for ten years but he remembered me.
Janna 3 years ago
Moved to the UK 12 years ago from the Netherlands.Took my 3 year old to a random playground in the next village from ours, to have change of scene. Heard a dad speak Dutch to his kid and struck up a conversation. Turns out we both read the same subject at the same university in the Netherlands, one year apart. We were members of the same student society. His gf at the time lived in the same student flat as I did and he used to hang out is the same local bar. We did not recognise each other at all, but must have crossed paths at some point. Also, he lived in another village and had stopped because his kid spotted the playground and wanted to explore.
Robert T 3 years ago
Many years ago, we were on holiday on Cyprus, visiting Nicosia. My dad didn't want to have to try and find somewhere to park our hire car in the centre, so he parked in a residential street just off the main road. I dutifully copied down the street name in Greek, so we could find it again, and we walked into the city. It was a longer walk than we thought, so we decided to get a taxi back. We went to the taxi rank and showed the street name to one of the drivers. A bit of a kerfufflle went on in Greek and he asked "why do you want to go there?". My dad explained that he had parked our car there under the shade of a tree. Another driver then says "You park under my trea?". We thought it was a joke. Anyway, the first driver agreed to take us and when we arrived at the car, he told us that we were parked outside the other driver's house! It was indeed his tree!
ADHORTATOR 3 years ago
We met two of our kids teachers in front of a church in Harlem NY.... We are from France
Sue Hazlewood 3 years ago
Was on a tour in Europe and the group was all sitting down for a meal in Amsterdam when I heard my name. It was a guy I worked with many years ago, on the same tour.
marianne eliza 3 years ago (edited)
Department Christmas season lunch at restaurant. Female 2nd level manager, a very cool woman and excellent people person, brings along a girlfriend. We're all seated at long rectangular tables and I happen to be across and over 1 from manager and friend. Over hear conversation about friend's relationship. She's talking about what he does, owns restaurant X in town Y. Now my ears are up because my very married uncle is one of the owners. I interupt them and ask if she is talking about John Doe. She says yes. I reply that he is my uncle who is very married to my aunt and has 7 kids. (most of them grown and out of the house at this point). That put paid to any more conversation for 2 people on either side of all of us. No questions and no follow up occurred to any of the parties.
Miss Frankfurter 3 years ago
I was in grade 5 during Canada's centennial year, 1967. I had the most wonderful teacher and to celebrate Canada's birthday he and his wife were going to bicycle across the country, starting in Vancouver B.C. The night before they left they were staying at a campground there and didn't have much with them because they had to carry everything on the bikes or their backs. A family was camping right next to them and the family ask he and his wife to join them for dinner. Introductions were made and the father said "Im (his name)". Very uncommon last name. My teacher said, "That's interesting. I have a girl in my class by that last name" The dad asked him what the first name is. My teacher told him my first name. He said, "That's my niece."
Maroon 3 years ago
Was in Italy 2 years ago visiting relatives and I accompanied my father to a dinner where he met up with old school friends and their families. I talked to one of the wives of my father's friends about my dissertation in archaeology and about one specific author who is one of the main contributors regarding my topic... It turned out that it was her!!! I was so mindblown
Frances M 3 years ago
On my honeymoon I went to an Irish bar in San Diego and the singer started playing “living next door to Alice”. Well, as any Irish person will tell you, there’s a particular way you sing the chorus. The singer stopped and said “there’s some real Irish in tonight!”. Later we got talking to him when we went up to ask for a particular song and it turns out he was Irish himself and used to live on the road directly behind my MIL. so close you could have just yelled a conversation between them.
WildHoneyPie 3 years ago
Years ago I was walking out of work with my boss (in New Mexico). I was chatting about my parents. She asked where they were from and I told her a small town in Ohio nobody really knew, Piqua. She tells me "I was born there!"
Beuska 3 years ago
I live in Hungary, I remember one summer we went to the lake Balaton with my friends to a small city, not a very significant or fancy place. There was a wine festival where we sitted next to some Italian guys. I was really surprised what they were doing there as this city is not really a tourist-known place. We were chatting and they asked me I have ever been to Italy. I was actually, to an exchange in Viterbo, also a small, not very well-known place 100 km far from Rome. They said they were from Viterbo, I could not believe it. One of the guy asked me if I wanted to see his ID, and he was really from Viterbo. :) I was amazed :)
Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
I actually have a story for this. So background, my parents divorced when I was really young, dad remarried and later emigrated. Fast forward some years, I was 17 and went to a high school dance, emailed some pics of me with my best friend to my dad. He emailed back "Is that Dean Donald's son?" Turns out our dads used to work together, were pretty good friends, and still had contact occasionally. Nobody made the connection until my dad saw those photos.
Stannous Flouride 3 years ago
I was in Bangkok in 1999 watching The Matrix in a bar with a bunch of other foreigners from my hostel and we decided to go to an internet cafe to check our emails. A block away I realized I'd left behind a Thai magazine I'd bought at the bar and went back to get it. Passing through an alley passage under a building I ran into my neighbor from two doors away in San Francisco. We were the only people there and neither of us had known the other was in Bangkok. A few seconds difference in either of our paths and we'd have completely missed each other.
Christian Karcher 3 years ago
Summer holidays in the US with my family, we were living in Germany. Visited a remote tourist information centre in the Monument Valley. Signed the visitor book. Two entries above mine was the entry of a classmate of mine. As I turned around I spottet him in the souvenir shop. Neither of us knew we were in the US. Thousands of kilometres from home, same day, same time, same spot.
Kenny Kulbiski 3 years ago
I'm from one of those low populated fly over states. Years ago I literally bumped into a classmate in a bar in the Philippines. We never had much in common and still didn't so it was " hey, nice to see you " and we both moved on after a couple of minutes.
Bex 3 years ago
Last one... in grad school I met my now BFF, April. This is in Massachusetts, but I grew up in RI. Her grandmother lived on the water; her backyard sloped to her own private beach. We would go over there and swim all the time and one day when we're talking with her grandmother, she mentions she grew up in RI. I ask her where and she says EP (the same town I grew up in). She went to the same HS as me, my sister, both my parents, and my Mom's mother (Nana) and aunt (my Great Aunt Mary). Grandma asks about my Mom's family name and turns out she was friends with my Nana and Aunt Mary when they were kids. She even asked after Ruth, we was my Nana and Aunt Mary's sister who passed away when she was 12. Years later I found my Nana's HS Senior yearbook, and April's grandma was also in it as a Senior. Turns out they drifted apart as they grew up, but they all went to school together for 12 years.
Bex 3 years ago
Another big one... my parents graduated HS in 1964/1965, in the same town and school that I also graduated from (1996). In 2016 mom and I go to this little Greek place for lunch. One of the people working there (Chris) is cleaning the tables around us and we all start chatting. He's super friendly and talkative and the subject goes to kayaking. I say I've always wanted to try that. He offers to teach me, we exchange numbers, and the next week we're on the water. 3 years later, he's one of my best friends and talking w Mom and Dad, my Dad says, "I think I know his father." Now, I grew up in RI, which is tiny to begin with, so you always see people you know in the most random places. But turns out my Dad didn't know his father. BUT, my Mom and Dad hung out with Chris' grandfather and great uncle in HS. And C's grandfather was my Dad's boss for a few years. And C's Mom and sister used to babysit me and my sister when we were really little. Tiny RI, tiny world.
Dr Nostromo 3 years ago
I don't know how true it is but I heard that if you meet a random person on the street, the chance of you knowing each other is very slim. However, the chance that you have a common acquaintance is about 50%. Considering everyone we've met in our lifetime, I supposed that's possible.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Weirdest thing I found out was my randomly assigned uni roommate being a second cousin. Her branch of the family didn't get along with my branch, so we found new roommates and we never spoke again.
carra rau 3 years ago
1. I was part of a traveling singing ensemble in college. Was in Madagascar meeting some other Americans. The guy across from me looked really familiar. He had been a part of the same ensemble 3 years before me. His picture was on some of the group’s promotional material. 2. I went to a small private university in Oklahoma. Another time in Madagascar, overheard some Americans talking about my university. Turns out they were parents of one of my friends. 3. Same trip to Madagascar, talking to same group of Americans found out one of them dated my best friend from my hometown!
Little Wonder 3 years ago
I might have shared this one here before, but anyway. A former workmate of mine was originally from Malta and went back every few years to see her extended family. She was chatting to a waitress who said "Oh you're from Melbourne? You might know my uncle!". My workmate explained Melbourne is big and the chances of knowing the man were very slim, but when the waitress told her his name my workmate had to say "Oh. Yes, he's my hairdresser".
Lily Mae Kitty 3 years ago
I grew up in one state and moved to another for 5 years and came back to home state. I'm managing a shop in a mall and one day my dentist from the other state walks in and says "What are you doing here?" Turns out he visits my home state twice a year and comes into this shop specifically every time. Another time, I was living in that other state and was at a college graduation in yet a different nearby state and ran into a girl I worked with 15+ years before in home state.
tomruns12 3 years ago
I've got a bunch of these stories. Once on a train in Mexico The man sitting across me used to live in the town I'm from. Once at a coffee shop in LA that I had never been to, the owner came running our of the back screaming my friend from (my home town). I don't remember him but he remembered me even knew my sister. I just bought a classic car online and the person i bought it from bought it from someone in my town. He didn't remember the persons name but I plan to look him up and let him see his old car again.
Rhon Young 3 years ago
2001 we were in Germany. On a castle tour the guide asked our daughter something. After she answered a voice from behind said "Are you guys Aussie's?" After the tour we chatted for a while, also bumped into each other the next day. I felt like I knew the names but could place where from. When I spoke to family back home it turns out the that husband was my uncles best friend.
TheTopTenz 37 3 years ago
Dinner reservation at EPCOT in Florida. We see a family also waiting for a reservation at this restaurant and start to chat with them. The next day we go to Hollywood Studios. We are waiting outside the bathroom when we see the family again! But it gets even weirder, because a few days later we see them again at another dinner reservation at Universal Studios. Seeing the same family three times within a week blew my mind.
Nat Hedley 3 years ago
A friend of mine and her boyfriend went on holiday and they struck up a friendship with the couple in the cabin next door. Next year, different place, different time of year, same couple next door.
Lady Vader 3 years ago (edited)
I was driving for Lyft for a short time a few years back. I picked up a passenger and of course we got stuck in LA traffic for over an hour trying to get to the airport. We're both chatty people so we struck up a conversation. Long story short, it turns out her ancestors owned mine in South Carolina a couple of hundred years ago. I was just amazed by the coincidence but she felt absolutely terrible and left a huge tip. #lyftreparations
Rachel Tucker 3 years ago
I've met the same family 3 times. Made friends with the kids on a holiday one summer at one Greek island, then at a different island a year later. Different dates, just complete coincidence. We then bumped in to them at Drayton Manor years later on a day out and it felt a bit weird.
LH25 3 years ago
We were in the elevator at the Eifel tower. A couple of women about my mom's age also were speaking English, so we did the "where are you from". We start with Seattle, they said they were from a small town about 150 miles south of the city. Mom says, "that's where I grew up". Turns out one of the women was in my mom's older sister's class several years, and remembered mom's family. We also ran into a family in Austria who live in the same town we did, and use walking trails we do too.
Bex 3 years ago
Met a guy (he was 36, I was 34) online who was from Scotland (when I met him he was living in the US, in the town next to mine, which is near Boston, and had only been living here for a few years). We dated for about 4 months, and didn't talk after we broke up. 5 years later, my bestie and I take a month-long trip to Scotland, which included staying at a hotel (for 4 nights) that used to be a working castle. Less than a month after we get home, the Scottish ex randomly texts me. He had no idea I had just been to Scotland. We get together and get to talking and it turns out the castle we stayed in was the place where he had his first job when he was 15, and we were staying about 3 miles from the house he grew up in and where his Mom still lives.
Lauren Caswell 3 years ago
I worked in a photo and print shop in the town centre, where the cruise ship passengers are dropped off and picked up by buses, so lots of tourists. I once had one dude who looked at me funny, then asked me if I was from Ireland. I'm Not, I'm kiwi born and kiwi accent, but my dad moved to nz from Ireland so I'm half Irish. Told him I was half Irish anyway, but how did he know? "You look irish". Didn't really get it. But I watched a movie a few years later filmed in Ireland and I kept seeing women in the background who looked like me!! Who knew you could 'look irish'?
Brett Connor 3 years ago
Was on Maui in Lahina back in 82 for 6 months. Met a guy "Michael" there who was from San Fran working at the Hyatt on Kapanali beach. Some 15 years later I was in San Fran for a workshop. One of the local gals and I headed downtown taking the metro. When the doors opened Micheal was getting off. I grab the gal who was already on the train and pulled her out. She was like (WTF) until she realized I knew this guy.
Jackie Porter 3 years ago
Before I was born my parents and sister emigrated from the north of England to Australia. My dad didn't lose his Lancashire accent at all whilst we lived there. During our life there we all went on a holiday touring as much of the country as we could. We were in the middle of nowhere stopping to get fuel and water from an old run down service stations. There was an old guy sat outside the shop with his had pulled down low just dozing as it was unbearably hot. He was wrinkled and brown as a nut thanks to being in the sun constantly. Apparently I ran off from my dad and he yelled 'Come back here you little bugger!' in his broad Lancashire accent. This old guy looked up and said 'Ee lad I know where thas is from' in an equally broad Lancashire accent. Turns out he used to live 20 minutes away from where we did and he knew my grandfather.
My O My 3 years ago (edited)
My parents lived next to a farm when my mum convieved me. They moved to the next town shortly before I was born. Moved to NZ when I was 18months old. "Moved" to London when I was 5. After a couple of weeks moved back to germany. Fast foreward a couple of years. I married the farmers son from the farm next door
Tess the ferret 3 years ago
Not as unlikely as the others, but my brothers friends dad hired a financial advisor. They got chatting(cos who wouldnt) and found out that the advisor is my uncle. I hadnt even realised that was his job!
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