Google Translate in Russian

The sun wakes me up early this morning, we are further north than we have been for awhile, so it rises earlier than expected.  There was no AC in the room last night so I had the windows open.  Open windows meant a cold morning rise.  

At breakfast we discussed the flight ahead and noted the local airport weather reported fog! How could this be, it is a glorious day outside.  We soon find out why when we driven to the airport, the city is clear but the airport is in the soup.  Looks like we not make our planned departure time.  

The fog lifted quite suddenly and we were only 45 minutes behind schedule.  We took are personal airplane bus to the helicopter and proceeded on our way.

In Russia they like us to fly high and they clear us to FL100, 10,000ft on QNH 1003 hectapascals.  Luckily today is a clear day so this is not a problem. Our flight up the spine of Sahkalinsk is quite spectacular and we enjoy the beauty of the mountains.  At 10,000 ft and this far north, only 42 degrees north, but on the Russian side the temperature is starting to get a bit chilly.  Today we recorded -3c, which is still above standard of -5c.  Since we are managing our fuel we do not have the heater on, but we do have the anti- ice on.  

ATC clear us into Nicolasajesk via ME at 7,000.  This is 7,000 ft and only 3nm out from the airport, this means they are manoeuvring us for a full instrument approach.  At 35 nvm out we state that we have the airport in sight and request a VFR approach.  Initially this was not forthcoming, but after a little consoling it was granted.  The ATC at UHNN do not speak English so it was the area controller who let us down into the airport.  (Not sure how this is going to work on leaving, but I guess we will find out).

No handlers today so we are on our own in an airport in the wild Russian west where no one speaks English.  We are first taken to the tower to explain why we are here and for how long, the we tell them we need fuel, Niet Fuel!  Why?  Still not sure why.  We had got this far with Google translate, it really is a useful tool if a bit clunky.  I eaten. An age to bring up the Russian Cyrillic alphabet on my keyboard.  Anyway we were not at a standstill and fuel is important, besides we had already paid for it in advance.  This meant we needed the assistance of Evgeny Kabanov and Sergey Melnikov.  We managed to phone them even though it was early in Moscow we got Sergey.  40 minutes later we had the thumbs up on our fuel, 50 minutes later we actually had our fuel (tanks to the top for one of our longest flights tomorrow).  

We are in deep Russia, bookings.com does not pull much weight here, it only offers a mouldy twin room with no restaurant nor bar.  Even though it is only $18 we take a pass.  Evgeny says that there are two other hotels in the area, but these are Russian and we have no way of bowing if they had rooms, how much and were they are.  We decide to ask the staff at the airport and also ask for a taxi.  Again I use Google Translate.  Initially we do not seam to be getting anywhere then the taxi turns up.  The guys talk to the driver and tel us to get in.  Are we being kidnapped, if we are they are being very pleasant about it so we jump on in.  The Taxi driver without a word drives off.  10 minutes later we are outside a shabby drab building on a soviet town square.  This must be the hotel.  The driver was agent and would not take a tip even though he had to find the right change from an upstairs apartment.

We are at an apartment / Hotel.  They have two rooms / apartments and even better take credit card, we lucked out.  After the arduous but pleasant and civil check in process we dump our bags and decide to check out the town.  It really is a post soviet town.  Earlier during the check in I flicked through book on the history of the place.  Pre revolution it looked as if it may have been a pretty coastal town, today it is a sign of the failed socialist system that it so proudly venerates with statues and memorials every few yards.  The buildings, weather wooded, brick or concrete are all crumbling.  Large pipes abound the city, these are used to covey steam around the town for,heating.  The shops are like I imagine post war shops to have Ben like in Britain, the only difference being that have on offer more alcohol than groceries etc.  Everything on display must be ask for from the shopkeeper and it is all added up as you shop.  Everyone queue orderly for their turn to shop.  The latter may sound good but it leads to long queues. Things may not be great in Blighty but they are better than here.  

Again I spot that i am the most fashionable guy in town!

We head back the aparthotel and try to find the bar we were told about, are understanding was that the bar was open all day up to 7pm and then food was served.  We were wrong, the bar is open all all day until seven, no beer or alcohol is served and food is stopped at 7pm.  We were however ok as we had made it to the restaurant/ bar / dive at 6.  We are shown a piece of paper with the menu on it in Cyrillic.  Ok let's try google translate again, this time the camera function.  The camera function never really works, but this time it did gives us a rough idea or what each item consisted of.  We not order pork in vegetables (a microwave pork dish in carrots).  I had to eat something, we have a long flight ahead.  The portion size is minimal so we ordered some other stuff ( a microwave patty of meat covered in something light brownish), yuk!  Peter orders loads more, but with difficulty since a lot of items in the menu are sold out.  

Dinner kind of over we head to our rooms, where I fill in the old blog.

Loving it!