Chance Encounters

During solo travel, there's often a chance to meet various people on trains, planes, and boats....engaging in conversation that will never go beyond that place and time...yet somehow, some of the words remain in our minds despite the fact that we've forgotten the faces and names. I was once on a train from Vienna to Venice and met three people on the way...a burnt-out lawyer from New York, a Jamaican cook studying in Paris, and a South African that had just left university. We ended up hanging out for a week, renting a place in Venice and trying to solve the world's problems in seven days. I can't remember their faces now but I sometimes wonder where they are...