It’s truly serendipitous how frequently we encounter acquaintances in the most unforeseen circumstances. Have you ever had a comparable experience?
A user asked the forum, “What was the weirdest place you bumped into a friend?”
TRAIN
“I was on a train in the Beijing Metro. It pulled up to a stop, and the door opened at a random station, and a friend from the UK stepped on.”
IN PARK
“My roommate went to hang out with his girlfriend, so my other roommate and I decided to go do something. We drive to a random park in the big city nearby that neither of us has ever been to and are walking around. We’re both saying, “Man, it would be fun if John would hang out with us more,” and as we’re talking about him, his head pops up over the hill.
He and his girlfriend had gone to the same park that they had also never been to.
Not that crazy, but it was definitely weird.”
CHANGI AIRPORT
“I was backpacking in Malaysia and met this cool English girl; we spent a week traveling together.
Three years later, I had a layover at Changi Airport. Singapore reminded me of her, and I wondered what she was up to as I walked through the airport.
I didn’t have to wonder for long as she was a few gates down from me, waiting for a flight back to London.”
In McDonald
“During winter break, I was coming home from snowboarding and stopped at a random McDonald’s in the middle of nowhere. I’m waiting for my food and in walks 2 of my friends from college.
I’m like an hour away from where I live, and they’re like 3 hours away from where they’re from. Apparently, they were seeing a football game and heading back, and we all just happened to go to the same McDonald’s in the middle of nowhere at the same time.”
IN GOLF PLAYGROUND
“My Dad and I went to play golf at a nice course in Ireland. Since it was just two of us, we were paired with two other random players.
The 3rd was one of my Dad’s former college roommates from the University of North Carolina (where I went as well), and the 4th was a similar-aged guy who went to NC State.
So we’re in Ireland, and all of the players were from the same part of North Carolina. The most bizarre coincidence of my life.”
IN NEW YORK
“I visited my sister when she was living in Queens, NY. I hopped on the subway near her apartment and sat down next to the girl I had given away my cat to when I left college a few years earlier.
It turned out she lived one stop away from my sister, and they both worked in Times Square. I stopped by her apartment the next day to give my old cat a scratch.”
IN FRESHMAN TOWER
“I’m visiting a friend in the large freshman tower of her big school.
We’re in a tower of about 500 dorm rooms, chilling in her room, and all of a sudden, my cousin busts through the door yelling,
“I.m so sorry, hey can I hide? I’m running away from the security police. Wait for cuz! That’s you!?!? What’s up, Jamie?!” We’re like, wait, how did you find us?
He had been in a field party, and the cops came and sprayed tear gas to disperse; he stole the keg and put it in the back of his VW.
He then drove to the freshmen towers because he didn’t have anywhere to sleep and thought he could sleep on the communal furniture. When he realizes there is security at the front, he walks by them, and they start to chase, and then he is in a multi-floor chase with them! On the like 10th floor, he just randomly had just tried any dorm door.”
“Bachelor party. One of the many girls present there was one of my home girls.”
ON THE BEACH
“Not a friend, but a week or two after finishing up a year of grade school, I was on the complete opposite end of the country (I am from the east coast and was on the west coast visiting/living with relatives for the summer), and I ran into a teacher of mine on the beach.
Thousands of miles away, at most a week or two removed from her class, and I ran into my English teacher.”
ON VACATION TO CAPITOL
“My wife and had only been married a couple of years in 1989 and went on vacation the same week my Dad went on honeymoon with his third wife.
He lived in Tennessee, and we lived in Florida. He was going to Virginia, and we were staying in the mountains in West Virginia.
None of us had cell phones in those days, but we joked before we all left that we should meet up since we’d be a lot closer than normal. On a whim, my wife and I decided to go to Washington DC for the day, and we ran into them at the Capitol.”
AT HOTEL
“I’m from Ohio. When I was a kid, I went to Mexico with my parents, and they ran into people they knew at the hotel. They had kids my age, so it was nice because I had friends for the rest of the vacation.”
IN HIGHWAY
“I don’t know about weird, but my one friend and I have bumped into each other several times completely by random, and we live nowhere near each other. One time we were both driving on the highway and came to a light looked at each other at the same time, and were both surprised.
Another time was in the middle of Manhattan, walking on the sidewalk through thick crowds. We literally bumped into each other.”
AT VASECTOMY APPOINTMENT
“My mum and dad bumped into an old friend and her husband when my dad was waiting to go into a vasectomy appointment – they’d originally met said friends at antenatal classes about 25 years previously.”
AT A BACHELOR PARTY
“At a bachelor party for a friend named Phil.
His brother Terrance was going to show up. Turned out to be the same Terrance we were friends with for years.
Circles never crossed.
Yes, this was in Canada.”
SPORTS TEAM
“A few years back, I ran into a buddy I hadn’t seen in 15 years on the London Underground.
I’m from Kansas, and he’s from Alberta. We were both there for work for a few days, completely unrelated industries. It was rush hour in Central London, same packed carriage. Weird.
We swapped numbers, met for dinner that night, and haven’t seen each other since… although we now text once in a while to talk crap about each other’s sports teams.”
ARMY TENT
“Afghanistan. A buddy from high school deployed to the same base. We hadn’t talked in years and didn’t know each other had joined the army until we saw each other in the chow tent!”
WHILE STEPPING OFF AN AMBULANCE
“Stepping off an ambulance. I was running calls, and he happened to be walking by at the time.”
ON A BEACH IN CA
“Ran into my ex-roommate on the beach in CA. I lived in the area and was relaxing with my partner on our day off. He lived back in the Midwest and was on a trip with friends. Hadn’t seen the guy for five years. We parted on bad terms, and I had to move out due to his bad behavior and poor mental health.
When we saw each other on the beach that day, he immediately said that I owed him $100 for some utility bill from five years ago for real. I absolutely didn’t owe that clown any money. I just said, ‘Enjoy your trip’ and packed up our stuff to leave. Some people never change. It’s been decades since then, and I don’t miss him.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.