Alex Nelke and Ola Forsmark never forgot that evening together in Thailand.
Eyes meeting across the dancefloor. Drinking on the beach side by side. Attempting to climb a mountain in the middle of the night. Swimming in the dark. Laughing together as they ran across the sandy beaches.
“I remember thinking, he’s a really special person, from the second I met him,” Alex tells CNN Travel today. “You know when you meet someone and you’re just on one level? It was so easy to talk to Ola. It just felt super right.”
“When I saw Alex, I was stunned,” Ola tells CNN Travel. “I had a crush on her the moment we met. She was always such a special person to me, ever since that first evening.”
Then, for more than 15 years, Alex and Ola were out of touch, living separate lives, happily in relationships with other people. They rarely thought of each other. When they did, it was with a fond nostalgia for a night they’d never forget, but had consigned firmly to the past.
Cut to 2020 and Alex and Ola both found themselves single. And an unexpected message out of the blue resurrected feelings and kickstarted a surprise second chapter.
An unforgettable evening
Alex and Ola’s paths first crossed when they were in their mid-20s, both visiting on the island of Ko Phi Phi, Thailand – known for its white sand beaches and striking limestone cliffs, all bordered by crystal clear blue water.
It was 2004. Alex, originally from Germany, had just quit her London-based fashion PR job to travel the world with her best friend. Meanwhile Ola was a Swedish engineering student spontaneously exploring southeast Asia. Alex and Ola met in a crowded bar and stayed up all night together on the island.
“We were only supposed to have that one evening together, because I was supposed to leave Ko Phi Phi the next morning,” recalls Alex. They didn’t even swap contact details.
But then Alex and her friend missed their morning ferry. Realizing the next boat didn’t depart until the following day, the two women made their way back to their hostel. They were walking down the street when they bumped into Ola. Alex remembers Ola’s wide smile when he unexpectedly saw her again.
“It was really lucky that Alex missed that ferry,” says Ola today.
Alex and Ola made plans to hang out again that evening, hitting up a few bars and beaches before Alex and her friend successfully made their ferry the next day.
This time round, Alex made sure to give Ola her email address. The two travelers promised to keep in touch. There was even talk of Ola and Alex reconnecting later down the line in Bali.
“But that didn’t happen,” says Alex.
“We ran out of money. So we never made it to Bali,” explains Ola.
Instead, Alex and Ola kept in touch over the next few months via email and instant messenger, updating one another on their respective adventures.
“We were pretty much emailing every day,” recalls Alex. “We were in touch a lot throughout our Southeast Asia travels. Then I went traveling to America for another three months, and Ola went home to Sweden, but we just kept emailing and stayed in touch.”
When Alex returned to London in the winter of 2004, Ola immediately booked a plane ticket to visit her.
“He came for a long weekend with one of his best mates,” Alex recalls. “But nothing really came from it.”
Both Alex and Ola came away from their London reunion a little disappointed. Their connection in Thailand had felt like something special and they’d both looked forward to one another’s emails. The idea that they didn’t have a future felt bittersweet.
“I guess it’s just not the right time,” was Alex’s conclusion.
As for Ola, he felt like a relationship with Alex was out of reach – despite his feelings for her.
“As I said, I had a crush on Alex from the moment I first saw her, and I thought she was an amazing person and beautiful woman,” says Ola. “But I also felt she was so cool, so beautiful, living in another city far away from me — it was a bit unreachable for me.”
Despite the bittersweet London visit, Alex and Ola remained on good terms and they kept up their emails. When Facebook took off, they connected there.
“But then, life happened,” says Ola. “We were in contact less and less, talked less and less…”
Eventually, the emails dwindled. Alex started dating a guy in London. Then Ola met, married and had children with someone else. They remained connected on social media, but never interacted online. Alex didn’t even know Ola was married – he didn’t post much, and he wasn’t on her radar anymore.
For well over a decade, Alex and Ola placed one another firmly in the past — a happy memory of their twentysomething travels, but nothing more.
Then one day, Alex sent Ola a message out of the blue.
Reconnecting on social media
It was July 2020. London was just coming out of its first Covid lockdown. There still wasn’t much to do beyond scrolling social media, so when Alex spotted on Facebook that it was Ola’s birthday, she decided to send him a friendly message.
She’d been single for the previous couple of years, but she didn’t know Ola’s relationship status. She didn’t have romance on her mind when she contacted him.
“What prompted me: no idea,” says Alex of the moment she sent the message. “I think it must have been the Facebook gods. I think what happened is that I was on Facebook the evening of his birthday or one day after his birthday and saw that people wrote congratulations messages on his profile. So I sent him a message to say ‘happy birthday.’”
When the message popped up on Ola’s phone, he couldn’t believe it. As it happened, he was recently divorced and just beginning to consider dating again.
“I got super nervous,” he recalls. “I didn’t know how or even if I should respond. I was like, ‘Why is Alex messaging me?’ I was so nervous and so excited at the same time, because I had so many feelings about the meeting in Thailand.”
Ola told himself not to overthink it, and he wrote back a friendly response.
“And then we started chatting,” he recalls.
To their mutual surprise, the connection Alex and Ola felt that night on the beach in Ko Phi Phi returned right away. It was simultaneously like no time had passed, and like the timing was finally right. Alex and Ola started talking early on about how they could reunite in person.
“Four weeks later, we met in Berlin,” recalls Alex.
Reuniting in Berlin
Alex and Ola reunited in a Berlin hotel lobby.
“I arrived, saw him, and didn’t quite know whether I should check in first, or go and run into his arms. As a German, I decided I should check in fast,” says Alex, laughing. “Reuniting felt so natural — super exciting, but so natural.”
“It was so weird, and so exciting,” says Ola, of the moment he saw Alex again after almost two decades apart.
The two spent the weekend wandering the city’s parks, eating al fresco and catching each other up on their time apart.
“We just hit it off straight away and we had the most amazing weekend,” says Alex.
After years apart, experiencing heartbreak and failed relationships, Alex and Ola decided they didn’t want to procrastinate on happiness.
“We decided really quickly that we wanted to be together,” says Alex. “We thought, ‘Life’s too short.’”
And so, over the rest of summer 2020, Alex and Ola met up every four or five weeks, visiting one another in London and Sweden as Covid rules allowed.
In the fall, Alex met Ola’s children, who she immediately loved.
Within six months of reconnecting with Ola, Alex was packing up her London apartment and moving her life — including her beloved dog, Wolfgang — to Sweden, permanently.
“It moved super fast, but it felt right,” Alex says. “I’ve always thought Ola is such a special person. And I’ve always had this really special feeling about him. And I just thought, ‘If not now, then when?’”
“I was so in love,” says Ola, of the decision to invite Alex to move in with him. “I’m quite a romantic person, I didn’t even think about what would happen if it didn’t work out. I just wanted to be with Alex as soon as possible.”
While Ola and Alex were caught up in the excitement of their rekindled romance, Ola also wanted to ensure his children and ex-wife were comfortable.
“I thought over everything carefully, with the kids,” Ola says. “I tried to organize everything in a good way for everyone.”
Alex quickly came to think of Ola’s kids as her “lovely bonus children.”
The blended family get on very well.
“Seeing him with his kids, he’s so loving and sweet,” adds Alex.
Life today
A year after she moved to Sweden, Alex and Ola bought a house together in Malmö, Sweden. Three years on, the couple still live happily there.
Alex runs a dog training business and Ola is a teacher.
For Alex, moving to Sweden to be with Ola was an easy decision and one she’s never regretted — although she has moments when she misses her old life in London.
“But when I get a bit gloomy about it, I just think about how we met, and how lucky we are that we ended up together. And how amazing and random and romantic all of this and then it makes me feel really good,” she says.
This past July, Alex and Ola celebrated four years since they reconnected.
“When I think about us first meeting, I get a bit scared, almost, because it was so lucky,” says Ola. “We saw each other on the dance floor, then we had a fun evening together. But we didn’t exchange contact info or anything. It was lucky Alex missed her ferry, and then everything else happened from there.”
“The universe definitely wanted us to meet,” adds Alex. “I mean, the universe gave us two very good opportunities. It’s funny to think we kind of have a 20 year history — but also don’t.”
In Alex and Ola’s Malmö home, they’ve got a photo frame — “one of those see-through frames where you can put two photos in,” as Alex puts it.
On one side is their first photo together — the only one from their 2004 Thailand meeting: a slightly drunken, smiling photo of the two of them in their 20s — a photo they long thought would be their only one together.
On the other side, is a photo taken recently in which the fortysomething version of Alex and Ola grin to the camera with their arms around each other.
“One is from 20 years ago, and one is from now. So we swap them around every now and then, which is fun,” says Alex. “Our relationship still feels pretty much the same as it did in 2004, but better — because now we really know each other.”
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