A Day In The Life Of An Ordinary Russian 🇷🇺 (Feb 2026 / Deep In Siberia ❄️)

Hello guys! This is Hidden Russia and Irina here. Today you can join me and spend the whole day to see the way ordinary Russian people lives. I have quite a lot of plans for today. And the first thing to do today is to take out the trash. There is no garbage chute in my building, so we throw our trash into the garbage containers located in our neighborhood. The walk to them takes five minutes. As you can see our municipal services don't work very well and during the day the garbage bins turn into a dump. What I'm going to do today? I'm going first of all to see my what we call it therapist for manual treatment. Also I'm going to do my training in the fitness center. Also I'm going to buy a couple of things. So on the way I will show you places I visit and I'll give you prices and in general will comment about different things which are very Russian or which are just normal for our everyday life. It's very cold today. It's only minus 20 degrees Celsius and it's a little bit windy, so it makes it like chilly. So where I am in the world right now? I am in Irkutsk. It is the capital of Eastern Siberia, Russia. We are not really far from China and only about 300 kilometers away from Mongolian border. Now I'm going to take a bus. I'm going to use our public transportation system to reach the cabinet, the office of my therapist. So I'm not sure guys what you call this specialist. In Russia we call it manual therapist, but maybe other words like osteopath or chiropractor will be better to use for western audience. Anyway I'll go to therapist for manual treatment. And you may ask me why do I need it. Recently when I've been to Egypt, drivers in Egypt are crazy. Recently I had a very painful fall on a bus. I was standing with my back to the windshield. The driver braked sharply and I flew backward and hit my head and back on the dashboard. I didn't feel much pain and I could move any parts of my body freely, but I just wanted to check my head. A couple of months ago she helped me with my severe headaches, so I trust her and I hope she will help me this time as well. And she didn't come. No explanations, no calls, nothing. Now I need to find a place to eat. I'm hungry. I love canteens Because most of the time it is homemade food and it's very quick. The food is already ready. So the name of this one is Kalinka Malinka, which is very Russian style. And it is cafeteria plus canteen. Okay, let's get in. I've got my favorite dish. It's a borsch, it's a berries pie and a cup of tea. So guys, this set costs 250 rubles. So guys, I just had a very good lunch. It was delicious, very nice and the pie was very fresh, just made. But I'm so angry because of my manual therapist. And now shopping mall and I need to buy sneakers. This is the shopping mall itself. It's called Caramel. It's written right here. Caramel. Caramel. So let's get in. I need sneakers for my training as I go to the fitness center now. Well guys, the choice is very limited. So I think I will order something on the marketplace. Actually guys, what I hate the most is shopping. I guess many women love shopping, but I just hate it. Okay, I didn't find anything for myself. I didn't like any of the jeans I tried. By the end of March I will travel to China, so I'll go to Uniqlo for shopping. All right guys, I purchased nothing. I think I need to do online shopping. Well, first of all, the choice is quite limited and I'm so lazy to walk around. So I prefer to stay in my bed and just scroll the platform, the online platform. And yeah, let's do this. Let's do online shopping. So now I go to the bus stop and I need to go through the central market area. I don't like that area. Look at this, by the way. There are a lot of cafes here which are run by people from Central Asia and it's halal food here. So the cafe is down there. And actually, this area used to be a local Chinatown long ago, but now almost all Chinese people are gone, unfortunately. But the restaurants are still here. Well, this is a cheap Chinese restaurant. It's called Dядя Ваня 1. Дядя Ваня is a very Russian thing, very Russian style of saying. And Ваня is Russian name, but I'm not sure why they called Chinese restaurant, Chinese cafe with this name. So yeah, this is the kind of cheap, cheap stuff. We're not going inside. Okay, this advertising here is saying it can be translated as chocolate from Dubai and the taste of the East. It's very popular nowadays in Russia and a bit expensive. Well, this is the area of a central market. Central market is right here at the end of the street. And this place used to be a big China market in 90s. Now it's also market, but without Chinese people. Nowadays, Dubai is a very popular destination for Russians. And well, this country is our friends, one of our friends. Can we please have better friends? Now guys, it's time for gym. Today I have a very interesting class. I'm having a cycle class. In Soviet times, exercise was for the whole country, not for yourself. The state built sports halls and run teams to make people strong for work and defense. No one really thought about getting a perfect body. In the wild 90s, the first private gyms appeared, but they were only for the new rich. For most people, the only option was a basement with homemade weights. At the same time, the old Soviet sports centers were falling apart. The real change came in 2000s. As people had more money, big gym chains opened everywhere with prices for every budget. Going to the gym became a normal and popular thing to do. People started working out for their own health and to look good. Today fitness is a normal part of life for millions in Russian cities. There are gyms for every goal, lifting weights, group classes or stretching. Even with recent economic problems, the industry is holding on. So, guys, I think I just lost, well, maybe six kilos for sure, maybe even seven. The annual fee for my gym membership is 25 000 rubles. This sign here tells us not to use hair dryer to dry pants, socks or sneakers. And this little sign here tells us that you can buy a couple of things in the gym, and if you need it, you need to call 513 and it will be delivered within three minutes. Many of you guys asked me how do we survive, how do we go out of our apartments when it's cold outside, like minus 30, minus 35 degrees Celsius. Actually, there is no difference, almost no difference. If it's minus 30 or like plus 10, we do exactly the same things. It's just our clothing is a little bit warmer or much warmer, that's it. The rest is exactly the same. We go to school, we go to university, we go to work. We have central heating system in every building. In one of my previous videos, I showed you like the worst living conditions you can see in Russia and I called it slums. And some people told me like, you don't know what is slums. Look at India or Brazil, guys. I know what slums in warm countries looks like, but we are in Siberia. Slums cannot be the same as in India. We are in Siberia, so our slums is a little different. So, coming back to the climate and weather topic. Yeah, I'm just wearing warmer clothing, that's it. The rest is the same. And the last thing to do for today is to pick up my stuff from the water pickup point. I do shopping online most of the time. I'm trying to do it as less as possible because it's addictive. But anyway, let's grab my stuff. When it's too cold, of course, our clothing is very warm, but also we have things like this. This is an electrical warmer. It can warm you up. There are three levels of temperatures, 60, 50 and 40 degrees. So, this thing helps me to warm up. I can put it in my pocket here and I feel better when it's like minus 30. Actually, the reason why I go for sport, why I go to the fitness center is not very typical or not very popular, I guess. I do it not to lose weight, but to have a reason to go out of my apartment. Because if I don't have a job, my guiding job, I just stay at home in my bed, scrolling social media or just sleeping, which is very harmful for my mental and physical health. So, I just need a reason. I just need some plans to go out. So, this is the reason for me to visit fitness studio. So, this is my order pickup point. It works every day from 10 to 9. And now one more task. I forgot I need to buy some groceries. So, I'm going to visit a small grocery shop next to my house. I need vegetables and fruits and maybe chicken. Well, it was expensive. So, these are my online shoppings. I've got two dental floss, 225 rubles each. This is ring phone holder, 133 rubles. This is liquid eyeshadow, it costs 271 rubles. This is fleece socks, 432 rubles. It's winter here, it's very cold. And these are my groceries. Today I've got leaf lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, oranges, cucumbers, pomelos, daily pets, a pack of juice and chicken wings. I'm trying to eat healthy. Most of these vegetables and fruits are from China and the only local things are chicken wings and juice. So, guys, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you want to see more videos about an everyday life of ordinary Russian people, like, subscribe and see you in the next videos, guys!