A travel coincidence- the world really is a small place

The town of Windsor

In this world, we have two kinds of people in life, those who believe that planet earth is so big that you can lose yourself and never be found again and those who think that the world is a small place and you can never escape from anything. I think you'll find most people are the former rather than the latter but only because they've never had an experience that proves to them just how small the world is. I was that person until two years ago when I had my first small world coincidence. 

I had just finished my 16 day Contiki tour of the UK & Ireland, and I was spending an extra four days in London to do some sightseeing and chilling before I went back home. I was staying at the Royal National as I did before the trip started, but only this time, I was in a triple share room. For the first two days, it was only this Kiwi girl (sorry, I can't remember her name) who was about to start a two month Contiki and me. On the third day, we both had coincidentally booked the same tour out to Windsor, Bath and Stone Henge, so we decided to tag along with each other and be bus buddies. After a long, long, long day of sightseeing, we arrived back to the Royal National and decided to have some dinner in the London Pub before going back upstairs. For some reason, though, I decided to go back upstairs quickly to get something, and that's when I realised how small this world is. 

When I went back upstairs to our room and opened the door, I noticed there was somebody in the spare bed. I walked into the room quietly, not trying to wake the person up, but that didn't work because they woke up straight away. I turned the bathroom light on and apologised to the person for waking them up. They said it was okay and that they shouldn't have been sleeping anyway. Now I couldn't see this person's face clearly, only the outline of their face and hair. Weirdly though, this person seemed familiar even though I only saw a shadow. We started talking a bit more, and she introduced herself, and I introduced myself as Jay, instead of Janaya, all the while, the only light in the room was coming from the bathroom. When she told me her name, I thought to myself, I definitely know this person, and I also recognised her voice. So I asked her if I could quickly turn the light on and so I did, and I was right, I did know her.  

I'll never forget that moment of pure shock when we realised that we knew each other. It turns out; this person was a girl named Summer, I briefly went to high school with for a term in Grade 8. At that time, we hadn't seen or spoken to each other in about seven years, and here we were on the other side of the world, in the exact same city, at the exact same time, in the exact same hotel and the exact same room, I mean the chances of something like this happening are 1 in a million, but it happened. We hung out for the next two days before I flew home, and she started her Contiki. I haven't talked to her since but it's a sweet little memory that I think we both laugh at and remember. 

I use this story as an example of just how small our world can be. Yes, it's vast, and there is so much to explore, but sometimes you'll meet and be unable to avoid coincidence while on your travels. Some call it the universe, some call it coincidence, whatever you call it, it's funny and makes for a great story. 

-JK