Meeting up in Barcelona

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

In the autumn of 1991, aged 23, I and some friends went to Barcelona for a week's holiday. We spent a few days in the city but also travelled up into the hills. On our last day in the city, two of us just went wandering aimlessly among the back streets of the old city. As we walked along one street 3 people came in the opposite direction. It was one of my best friends from primary school, who was in Barcelona for a few months, and his two parents, who had come to meet him for a week. I had not met him for many years, and not seen his parents since I was about 8. I can understand bumping into someone you have met before in a popular place - indeed this happened to me in Sydney, Australia - but it was the fact that we were both in the back streets of a large city that felt so bizarre! The friend I was with was absolutely astonished! Great stories, thanks
Total votes: 368
Date submitted:Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:00:57 +0000Coincidence ID:3602