Worst idea ever?

Where am I? Glad you asked. I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Athens.

What am I doing here? Well, I'm on holiday, obviously. Why else would one go to Athens? (Incidentally, this begs the question of why anyone would go on holiday to Athens, which I'm not in a position to say at the moment. My Athens experience has thus far been limited to a nice lamb dinner and several episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.)

Where did I come from? I'll spare you all the tempting but trite existentialist answer and say that my last couple of weeks have been split fairly evenly between the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria and the island of Ios. And the toilet of an international train. But that's not really a fair answer, and the details of that incident have yet to be hammered out. (Note: the word "hammered" was carefully chosen there)

Where am I going? Ah, I've finally asked myself the right question... Because, believe me, where I'm going is a hell of a lot more interesting than where I've been, Greek wildfires aside. I'm returning to Istanbul, which is on the verge of a military coup, to a job that I may or may not have, with a girl I picked up in Bulgaria.

What's this about a military coup? Right. Well, there was supposed to be a presidential election in Turkey in April, right? Just trust me on this one. However, the military stepped in and said, "If you elect Abdullah Gul, we'll stage a coup d'etat." (They're not joking. They've done it 4 times in the last 4 decades) AKP, the ruling party, respectfully shut up, and the election was delayed. See, everyone's worried that this Gul guy wants to impose Shariat law on Turkey, Iran-style. No problem for me, except that I won't be able to drink beer anymore, and my penis will be chopped off for living in sin or something. Actually... That last one is kind of a problem, isn't it?

Well, guess what? Abdullah Gul was elected president today. The military has issued a warning, but nothing serious has happened yet. I just hope I can get across the border before they close 'em up. My biggest concern isn't the coup itself - that'll just cause most of the foreigners to scurry away, thereby driving wages for foreign teachers up (No, I don't like the term war profiteer; it's too accurate). I'm actually much more concerned about the mound of Lira that I've accumulated in the last year. If the YTL falls, I lose everything. Why, oh why didn't I buy dollars before I left? Oh, yeah. Because the dollar's faring even worse.

But don't I have a job to go back to? Not sure about that one. I got an email about a month ago saying, "Congratulations. Your paperwork has been approved by the ministry of education! We look forward to calling you a colleague soon!" And then... complete silence. Now, I'm assuming that I'm supposed to start on Monday, but with the way things work in Turkey, it's equally likely that I've been caught on some technicality (such as my not having a work visa), which will render me unemployed. But, never fear, I've weathered worse, and working illegally is far more rewarding (fiscally and adventurously - just not practically) than sorting out that paperwork. Besides, I'm still a legal resident of Turkey (which may not have a government tomorrow) until next April, so they can't really kick me out (unless they really want to).

Besides, my editing job is really taking off. I've got three clients now, and if I can expand to just a few more in the next few months, I hope to be doing it pretty much full time by June. Then, I buy a laptop, leave Turkey, and travel the world, hopping from beach to beach, and wireless hotspot to wireless hotspot.

And what's this about a girl? Funny you should ask. Her name's Linsey - I met her on the train to Burgas. She's Canadian and was doing a 2 month trip around Europe. After a week or so in Bulgaria with me - of little sleep, lots of laughs, and probably too much sun, she's decided to come and hang out in Turkey with me instead of returning home. Her plane should be landing in Athens about... now... Gotta run!

I raise my glass of ouzo to you all!