Interesting People

The most interesting people I meet yearly seems to happen when I'm travelling.  In lines, on lounge chairs, at bars.  There has been some awkwardness after a great conversation as to "what next?".  Never have I offered a way to keep in touch and recently I've wondered if that was wise? 

Part of me feels it makes sense to keep that experience part of the trip and cherish it as such.  Another part of me thinks they would make a great friend.  But how to approach it without them thinking I'm trying to pick them up?  Marriage status doesn't always come up in conversations and as I do not sport a wedding band, how would people really know?

I would love to have found out more about the fellow D and I sat beside on a flight to Barcelona.  He and I talked for almost 4 hours (to the delight of the sleeping people around us, I'm sure) about my dissatisfaction with where I was working, how he left his place of work to do volunteer work in Nairobi.  He was en route back to Nairobi to visit friends for a month. 

When we got to the end of the gangway and realized we were heading in two different passport control directions, there was that moment where we just looked at each other for a few seconds before I wished him well.

Same with the fellow I met waiting at passport control last summer.  He was by far one of the most interesting person I have ever met and found his enthusiasm contagious.  It was the closest I've ever come to wanting to stay in touch. 

Unbeknownst to him, we don't really live that far from one another.  I would love to know how he made out with the distance race the weekend after and if he actually ended up scuba diving the Thames after all. 

In this day and age I think people are more cautious about strangers we meet.  I tend to lean to the paranoid side of the scale even though I find it easy and natural to discuss almost anything with anyone.  I believe if we met, you'd never guess I was an introvert.