When John joined a website for travel tips back in 2008, he never imagined he would meet his future flatmate. “I was living in Finland and working as a translator,” he says. “I originally moved from the UK to be with my partner 50 years ago, but after we broke up I decided to stay.” He joined a site called VirtualTourist, which was an early social media network for people who were passionate about travel. “I was planning a trip to Egypt at the time and getting some really great advice from people who were there.”
John soon got chatting to Anna, who was from Kyiv and worked in recruitment. “We were in the same time zone and we were both insomniacs, so we would end up chatting late at night,” he recalls. Anna, too, remembers these exchanges fondly. “I really liked his travel pictures and whenever he posted a new one I’d ask about his experiences,” she says. When Facebook became popular, they exchanged details and began chatting over Messenger, but it wasn’t until 2017 that they finally arranged to meet up in person.
