It's a small world

Most of us have had "it's a small world" experiences in our lives - especially as expats. Let's hear them. I'll start.

The ship from Australia to England on my first trip overseas pulled up at Southampton, and a bus (coach!) took us to London. Stepping down from the bus in Earl's Court, I looked to see I wasn't going to bump into any pedestrian - and the pedestrian I might have bumped into was an old friend from my secondary school. We used to hang out together. I was a boarder and he a day-pupil who invited me to his home on some Sundays. Then we lost touch and hadn't seen each other for six or seven years. That was an amazing small-world experience for us both.

Just as a follow-up... We hung around together in London that winter, then went our separate ways. I bought a car in Germany and drove around Britain by myself, then headed east to Oktoberfest in Munich and south to Greece. I picked up a girl in a hostel there and we drove to Ankara where we parked the car while we hitch-hiked east through Turkey to Iran. Dragged out of a shop in Isfahan to meet another pair of backpackers, we found my friend Graham and a Japanese companion, headed for Japan. (I've mentioned the meeting in an old blog-post, if anybody is interested in. The link is at Protected content )

So, there you go: two stories for the price of one - my contribution to this new thread. There must be others here - expats especially - who have had similar experiences. Could we hear about them, please?