Small World

Its day 32 on my first backpacking trip through Europe, I'm in Firenze and looking at my diary. I'm seeing how many tally marks I can put to faces.

No, not like that. Let me explain.

In the back of the diary I have a list of countries, and a mark for each person I've met from that place. Specifically, its people that I've sat down and talked to, rather than having briefly met, otherwise the list would be difficult to manage. And besides, I'm mainly interested in recording the nationalities of people who Ive made friends with, even if they have only been 'single serving'.

Birds and bins in Firenze

The stats so far are 21 nationalities, 12 being from the EU, and the others from all over the place, including Israel, Argentinia, Oz, South Africa and Vietnam.

        As of today, 120 tally marks are on the list. I think I could recall nearly all the faces if I tried. In the 'lead' is Australia whose people have taught me much, but I will get to that lot later.

Some of these people I have accidentally met in more than one city without having planned it, and many travellers have told me that the same has happened to them. At times, this is not extremely startling due to the linear nature of many popular travel routes; in Perugia, Italy, nearly everyone if not everyone that I met there was either coming from Rome and heading to Florence next, or vice versa. Even still, bumping in to someone in a city of thousands is remarkably head scratching. The most enjoyable part for me is, when you do see someone you know, how to play it out.

I have found success with a few approaches and when I see someone that I have met in another city, try to do something more interesting than going up to them and saying 'Oh hi, have we met before?' like a librarian or something. When I saw two girls in Santorini who I had briefly chatted to in Athens, we were all in a supermarket.

You often get people talking to themselves whilst comparing prices and I think those people come across as pretty mental. So, mumbling to myself about the nutritional content of various items whilst following the girls around. I probably made them feel uncomfortable for a while until they realised it was me. After which point (I hope) they realised that I was doing it on purpose and we had a good catch up amongst the long life milk selection.

Later in life, I was in Sorrento which is a charming town south of Naples. Here I spotted three American girls who I had had dinner with in Ischia. They must have dinner a lot as, when I saw them a week later, they were dining again. I was considering going to take their order and putting on a terrible mock Italian accent.

This would not have gotten me far with the already frosty locals though. So I ended up sitting down at their table and studying the wine selection very intently and making recommendations before they saw it was me. This also was met kindly and really what I should be thankful for is that I've largely met people who will put up with me.

The most enjoyable small world story that I've heard and will maybe ever hear was one that a Canadian girl called Alex told me on my second night, when I as in Athens.

She was travelling in Thailand where I am sure there are tons of small world stories as its such a popular destination. She met another Canadian, (again no real mystery yet, they are second in my list as I have met 19 whole Canadians). The guy was also from Quebec like her- and again its a big city. This all seemed pretty reasonable. She told the story with a steady pace, either to set the scene, or due to the fact I'd told her she would be getting a shot of Ouzo from Catherine when the tale was complete.

A happy family in Athens

She continued, and as the story went on, it turned out that he was from the same area, and the exact street even. The tale went from being a strange coincidence to claustrophobic in nature when she revealed that, 20 years before she moved in, he had lived in the house that is now her home.

Alex did say that the guy also described the rooms and layout of the house so she knew that the guy was for real. He even asked by name about the old man next door, who Alex had heard of.. but had passed away.

There are a few more less stories but that one stood out as being super unusual. I guess the only level higher would be talking to someone and it ending up being your long lost sister that you never knew about. I'm sure that's happened at some point before and they've only realised after getting married and having kids. Sure of it. You can find anything on the internet.

Make less strangers!

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