Daugavpils, Daugavpils.

"It is a drab, post-WWII Soviet creation and so depressing to visit it's almost a national joke. A skyline of smokestacks and the lumbering great hulk of Daugavpils prison greet those who approach".

But what the Lonely Planet doesn't tell you about Daugavpils is that they have very, very cheap chilli nuts. And no Euro. Pros and cons, my friends, pros and cons.

So we find ourselves in Daugavpils, Latvia's second biggest city which, according to the Lonely Planet, had it's glory days in the manufacture of tractor and bicycle chains for the rest of the Soviet Union. Those days are over now and Daugavpils has made to negotiate it's place in a bicycle and tractor chain free future.

We've been staying in a very nice and fantastically free apartment belonging to Laurie's cousin's wife (Milana) and gorging ourselves on the world wide web. Stayed up half the night to find out whether the Labor leadership challenge was successful. If only Kevin Rudd knew that two twenty somethings were spending a freezing Baltic night hovering around a computer with only a 1.5L bottle of gin and tonic to see us through. I suspect he would do a cartwheel. He's that kind of leader. He may be elevated to son status, but I reserve judgement.

Anyway, I can't really comment on the drabness or otherwise of Daugavpils as I do not leave this apartment except for trips directly to and from the supermarket. And after over 6 months of non stop travelling, Daugavpils is, to me, a perfect kind of mundane.

Plus Laurie gets to speak Russian, just like he has done ever since we got east of Italy. Except in Hungary where he spoke German. We have found people really love it when you speak to them in the language of their former overlords. The good thing is that now, people actually do understand the Russian words for 'good', 'thank you' and 'what'. A little babushka came to the door this morning and Laurie explained to her that we were not intruders, but inoffensive houseguests by repeating the phrase 'Milana comrade. Milana comrade' and then closing the door in the aforementioned bewildered babushka's face as she continued to cry 'sto? sto?' (what? what?). Cultural interchange my friends, that's why we travel.

There are no photographs here of Daugavpils. We have not taken any.