Our Tiny World, Full of Coincidences

A few months ago (back at the start of July 2013), I received an email from Laurentiu, a guy in Romania. He said to me, “I was working from 9-5, a job I didn’t like that much, but was comfortable enough that I didn’t want to quit.” Then things changed dramatically and he was no longer working that job.

After reading stories of hitchhikers and dream chasers across the world (and reading The Avant-Garde Life), Laurentiu boldly proclaimed, “I decided to quench my thirst of adventure and travel just for the love of the road and now my feet are burning with a desire to go places I could only dream of with my eyes wide-open during working hours!

I was delighted to hear something so brave: with both feet, he was jumping in.

This is one of the many emails I am very grateful to receive. And even better, I just received a follow up email from him. He sent me this picture:

my bike what a coincidence

I couldn’t believe it.

That’s my bike!

If you’ve been following along recently, you will notice that the bike in the picture (with it’s homemade panniers), is undeniably my bicycle. The very same bicycle on which I cycled 1,600 km from the UK to Slovakia. This led me to two logical outcomes: either he was a photoshop whizz… or he was actually sitting on my bike.

It turned out that on the road of hitchhikers, we had both made a common friend. It just so happened that I had left my bike at this friend’s house (after taking it on the raft then getting arrested) a couple of days before he had arrived at the very same friend’s house (in Budapest). We had literally missed each other by a day or two.

It amazes me how very full of coincidences this world is. It makes it feel like a very small world sometimes and that is rather comfortable to know.

And as (further) chance would have it, I happen to be in Moldova, with intentions of heading to Romania. Thus, we will be meeting up after all and heading to the mountains together. I hit the hitchhiking road (today) in search of a new friend, so keep your eyes open because you never know where or when in this crazy world we might meet!

Our great big scary world is sometimes rather small and friendly.

By | 2013-12-07T14:01:14+00:00 October 3rd, 2013|Stories|2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Cipri Oltean 26/11/2013 at 07:12 - Reply

    Jaime, you should definitely consider visiting Romania! It’s my home country and a beautiful place. I go back every year for a few weeks just to enjoy my time there.

    P.S. I currently live in the United States.

    • Jamie 28/11/2013 at 19:58 - Reply

      I love Romania: I spent about three weeks hitchhiking and exploring there this year and a couple of days last year too. Next year I hope to cycle through.

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