I know you!!

[ianrauk]

Talking in the office as one does.
We were discussing bumping into people on holiday who either you know or know you.

A chap here bumped into an old mate whilst on holiday in Australia...his old mate had moved there.

Someone recognised me whilst on holiday in the Indian Ocean. As she worked in Camden and used to drink in the same bar.

So anyone else?

 

[Dayvo]

20 years ago I was in Australia (Sydney) and on the way to meet an Aussie mate for a beer or more after he finished work,

Coming down in the lift at his work place, the lift stops at the third floor for someone to get in. Whilst the doors are open, a woman about the same age as me (30), looks at me and says in a loud Aussie accent 'I know you!' as the doors close and we go down to the ground floor.

My mate said I had to go back and find out who it was, whilst I was busy trying to re-call any drunken encounter with any of the Aussie girls I'd met!

Went back up, and it turned out that she was my best schoolmate's cousin who had emigrated to Australia some ten years earlier!

What are the chances?

 

[Globalti]

There was a woman in my bed last night.... I think I married her 13 years ago.

 

[Ravenbait]

I was walking through a pedestrian area in the middle of Bristol while visiting friends about 15 years ago when this tramp leaps to his feet and calls my name, pointing at me with the hand that isn't clutching the bottle of cheap whisky. His expression indicated he wasn't best pleased to see me.

I ran away.

Sam

 

[ColinJ]

My sister was on her romantic honeymoon and visiting a small village in the middle of nowhere in Italy. Lots of Italian voices everywhere, but then she heard someone speaking English at the table behind, so she turned round and said hello to the English couple sat there. Sister and husband got on well with the couple and they spent a couple of days together visiting the local sights. They didn't keep in touch afterwards.
A couple years later, sister and husband were in a tiny village, way off the beaten track, this time in France. Lots of French Voices everywhere but then she heard someone speaking English at the table behind, so she turned round and said hello to the English couple sat there. Yes, the same couple she'd met in Italy on her honeymoon... And no, they weren't stalkers, it was just an amazing coincidence! 

A mate's dad was in a shuttle bus at an airport in the USA when he heard a voice he recognised behind him. It was a schoolfriend that he hadn't spoken to for nearly 50 years.

I went on a studio engineering course at Kingston Polytechnic (as it was then) - Kingston-upon-Thames. I thought I recognised the instructor. It turned out that he used to drink in the same pub in Birmingham as my girlfriend and her sister!

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Sure we had a thread like this a long time ago.. but can't seem to find it... ho hum, no stranger to repeating myself...

Back in about 1992 I started going out with a lass back home (I was away at Uni). After some time together she wanted to go an visit her Cousin (possibly a Second Cousin - genealogy is not my strong point) who she'd just started to contact after a family rift involving her Grandmother and her relation's Grandmother (who were Sisters, IIRC) and wanted me to come along as moral support. There was a party organised for her Cousin's Birthday and my g/f was invited to come along to meet up and get to know her Cousin. We drove across from Derby to somewhere up near Preston and my gf was getting a bit nervous about meeting up in case it was a bit strange/difficult. I was trying my best to reassure her that it'd be okay, and if it wasn't then we could simply drive back the same night rather than staying over as many were doing.

We finally arrived (no Sat Nav in those days!) and made our way to the front door... my g/f knocked and we waited. The door was answered and my first words were "Hi, Lisa... how are you?!" which somewhat threw my g/f. Turns out that I used to go to College with her Cousin and sat a couple of feet away from her when we studied English Language together. Fortunately we got on well at College so it wasn't awkward at all, we all had a good chat and it was a great party.

Split up with my g/f a while after that though as she decided to cop off with some bloke where she worked.

It's a funny old world.


EDIT - Just noticed this thread is about bumping into people on holiday... ignore the above please.

 

[ColinJ]

Sure we had a thread like this a long time ago.. but can't seem to find it... ho hum, no stranger to repeating myself...

I don't know which forum it was, but we definitely did! Perhaps it was back in the old C+ days?

 

[gavintc]

About 15 years ago, in a ski chalet in Courchevel, I found myself pondering a new arrival. I thought I recognised him. We got talking and we had been friends when we both lived in Hong Kong some 15 years previously. It is a small world.

 

[Headgardener]

Hasn't happened to me but it has to my dad when he was working at Testwood pumping station as foreman electrician.
During tea break one of his colleagues started to tell of his time doing national service where a chap had been excused wearing boots, and as the soldier's feet had recovered, he as the sargent had marched the squad to the stores to get the soldier some new boots and my dad said that he remembered that as he had been second man back from the front of the squad.

 

[surfdude]

no you don,t !

 

[CopperBrompton]

Bumped into an ex-colleague from London in a hotel restaurant in LA.

 

[swee'pea99]

Friends recently hired a place in the middle of nowhere in Turkey - one of half a dozen arranged around a few shared amenities, including a swimming pool. Second day next to the pool, friend suddenly spotted a classmate of her daughter's lounging on a sun bed. Waited to see if daughter would notice. And waited. And waited. Finally could take it no more: 'D'you see on the other side of the pool?' she asked. 'Yeah. Laura. And?' said daughter. God but teens are hard to impress.

 

[fimm]

1) On holiday in France when I was a child, we managed to pitch our tent next to a colleague of my Dad's.
2) My parents met someone they knew when they were in New Zealand - IIRC they were the parents of a schoolfriend of my sister.

 

[Shaun]

I'm forever having people come up to me saying things like "Now then Steve, how are you?" and "Mike isn't it, didn't you work at so-and-so?" and ... well ... you get the idea. Everything except "Are you Shaun?" or "How are you Shaun?" etc.

It seems I look like a lot of people's old school / University friends, workmates, brother of so-and-so, etc.

Some people get really upset that I don't remember them and that I'm not the person they think I am (erm ... HELLOOOOO ... I can't help not being someone else!!!)

I guess I just have one of those faces?

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[guitarpete247]

Both meetings on same holiday.
1: Years ago on holiday in Turkey a mate and I met our ex deputy head on the harbour in Marmaris.
2: Still in Marmaris we went on a coach trip that was full of Turks. the only English speaker on the trip was a guy who had left Turkey 10 years earlier as an illegal immigrant to the US. He had now got his green card for the US so had come back for the first time as a tourist. 2 weeks later we had made our way up to Istanbul and been to the Grand Bazaar. As we came out at opposite end to where we went in we heard this voice "I don't believe it". It was the same guy who had now come up to Istanbul and was visiting his family who had a stall we had just walked past. He tried to get us to go back in and buy some gold.