I left Canada in September 1999 to travel around the world for one year. In advance I had mapped out an itinerary and booked airfare from city to city but included some time for overland travel. 

One of the very first stops I made was Istanbul, Turkey. I was joining a four-month overland camping journey with an English adventure travel company. I had a few free days before the trip started. The place I was staying was a rendezvous spot for various adventure travel companies. Three other girls (another girl from Canada, one from England and one from New Zealand) and I all decided to spend the day together in Istanbul. 

We had a fabulous day together which included a wonderful cruise along the Bosphorus River. At the end of the day, we all went our separate ways. The girl from New Zealand (who I will call Christina) was on her way home after having spent seven years living and working in England. I was ready for a four-month overland camping adventure across Asia...I had planned some time in China, Japan and Indonesia, then on to Africa.

Cut to July 2000, a full 10 months later. My own journey had detoured. While on the island of Bali, many miles from Turkey, I met a guy who I fell in love with. Instead of continuing to Africa as I had planned, I detoured and ended up in Australia with him. He and I spent three months camping with other backpackers in far remote northwest Australia in a tiny town called Kununurra.

One afternoon, as I was planning to use the communal kitchen facilities to make some dinner, a dusty van pulled up and out hopped two travelers. I wasn't paying attention to who they were. Then as they started to cook their dinner, too, I got a shock.
 
There was Christina! 

At the time I couldn't remember her name, so I shouted out really loudly, "ISTANBUL!! ISTANBUL!!!" Everybody in the kitchen was staring at me. What the heck? Christina turned and this look of utter shock crossed her face, too, as both of us realized who we were -- we couldn't believe it! Neither of us had planned to be in that place at that time, but there we were.

After we shared our stories, I learned that she had gone home to New Zealand but then decided she wanted to live and work in Australia instead. She had hooked up with a Swiss guy in Sydney and they had decided to drive around Australia, and that was how she ended up in this remote northwestern Australian town of Kununurra.