How true that
heading is. On my way back to Adelaide from Melbourne yesterday, I got talking
to a man who was also travelling on his own. We chatted about travel – as one
seems to do when one is travelling – and he mentioned visiting Philadelphia some
time ago with his wife.
It seems that the
bus they were travelling on was delayed on its way to Philly. When they got to
the main bus station much later than anticipated, they found that the hotel
they had booked to stay in was some “50 miles” out of town, and that the only way to get there was with an expensive taxi ride. Of course, they
cancelled that booking, and asked the agent at the bus terminal in Philadelphia
if he could recommend a local hotel.
The agent recommended the Comfort Inn. In fact, said he, “they have a courtesy bus
which can come and pick you up”. So the bus was called for and away went this
couple to the Hotel. The man and his wife were delighted to find they were
placed in a room overlooking the Delaware River, with a great view of the
Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
What a coincidence.
What a coincidence.
This is the same Comfort Inn hotel I stayed in during
my Philadelphia visit in 2010, during which I too had a room overlooking the river
and the bridge. Of course, I mentioned this to my fellow passenger, and marvelled at the serendipitous nature of travel encounters.
At a subsequent
stop (we were not sitting together), we started chatting again. This time we
began talking about the bus ride up to that point, and agreed that next time either of us were making the same trip, we would look at catching the train instead of a bus. He
mentioned that the train cost only a few dollars more anyway, and had the
advantage of letting passengers walk through the carriages, giving
them a chance to stretch their legs and move around more freely.
As we were
chatting, the thought suddenly occurred to me that the train would pass through
Mitcham station on its way into Mile End. Mitcham station is literally a couple
of hundred metres from my current address, and I told him this, mentioning that
I lived at Mitcham. Well, you could knock me down with a feather. Not only did
this man and his wife also live in Mitcham many years ago, but he said, they
“used to live in some flats opposite the Mitcham shops.”
“In Wemyss Avenue?”
ask I.
“Yes,” says he.
Go ahead. Knock me
down with a feather. Because my current address just happens to be one of those apartments in
Wemyss Avenue.
I couldn’t believe
it, and I’m not sure that he believed me, either. But there you have it. Two
complete strangers swapping travel stories during a long bus trip between
Melbourne and Adelaide, and we had both stayed in the same hotel in
Philadelphia, and in the same apartment complex in Adelaide.
Of course, the
dates and apartment/room numbers were different, but just the same – what are
the odds of this happening?
It is indeed, a
small world.
