22-year-old Phil Stephenson from Darlington, England accepted a stranger's invitation to fly to Turkey for a spontaneous vacation. Then he got stuck in a military coup—and more importantly, a bad date. Even without a coup, this would have been a pretty good story, and according to Phil, that's exactly why he accepted. "I just wanted a bit of banter," he told The Northern Echo. "We both matched on Tinder and spoke about five words before she told me she was going on holiday the next day."
Putting aside his bad timing, there's no doubt Phil's Tinder game is strong. He explained how he secured the invite:
"She gave me a big story about how her mam and sister couldn’t go and asked if I’d come – she didn’t have to ask me twice. We met for the first time at the airport and ended up in Turkey – I’ve done a lot of radged things in my time but nothing like this."
Ok, it sounds like he didn't actually do much, but he does take good photos (he's on the left):
Phil and his newfound lady friend went to the resort city of Marmaris on the coast of the Aegean Sea. Then, military forces shut down the main road out of town, and "people by the pool are saying there has been shootings and a helicopter brought down in Içmeler, which is just down the road."
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Now, Phil is telling loads of people laughing at his dilemma online that he wants to come home ASAP. Not because of the military helicopters and gunfire overhead, but because his date sucks.
"I thought we’d be going out every night and having wild times but now she’s going round and asking people about romantic restaurants...We got here and there were two single beds but she pushed them together. Now she’s slagging me off to everyone round the pool for sitting with my headphones on....My mates are telling me to stick it out because it’s so funny but it’s not ISIS or terrorists I’m scared of, it’s her. There’s definitely no wedding bells for me."
According to his Twitter account, Phil eventually got his wish.
Read more about Phil's travails and about his bad Tinder date in his extended interview with The Northern Echo.
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