Draft Day in Romania

Bucharest, Romania

The visit to Transylvania has come to an end and we have arrived in Bucharest (after a smoke-infested train ride through the scenic mountain region). It would be nice if I could provide some graphic prose about the visit to Dracula country. It would be nice if I could tell you a tale. It would be nice to have a Hollywood-type photo to share on this blog.

We'll have none of that coming out of Transylvania. The visit was well worth it, but it turns out that our journey to Bran Castle to see Dracula's former residence was just for fun (and not for legend). We hopped on an antique city bus and took the 45 minute bumpy ride from Brasov out to Bran. Upon arrival, we were greeted by countless Dracula/vampire souvenir stands. Exciting. I've always wanted wine that looks like blood and a little puppet that has fangs. (Don't worry, Pops. I got you one too.)

So we made our way through the throngs of locals to the front door of the castle. We stop. We read the long narrative posted outside of the castle. Hmmm. No mention of Dracula there. Turns out that Vlad Dragula "might" have visited the castle once (although my travel book says that he actually lived there). Still in all, it was a neat castle and worth the visit.

But the real subject at hand: NFL football. Most of you know that I am an avid fan of football -- college and NFL. Well, it is currently 4:40 AM here in Bucharest, and I am logged in to a chatroom so that I can take part in my traditional fantasy football league with the LBJ School (UT). Now that's devotion. Unfortunately, I'm not that happy with my draft so far (*or the end results), mostly because these aren't guys that I usually root for. Just for those curious folks, here is the team that I put together from the other side of the world with the overall pick number listed first.

2 LaDainian Tomlinson (RB SD)
23 Terrell Owens (WR PHI)
26 Travis Henry (RB BUF)
47 Laveranues Coles (WR WAS)
50 Brett Favre (QB GB)
71 Dolphins Defense
74 Jeff Wilkins (K StL)
95 Antonio Gates (TE SD)
98 Willis McGahee (RB BUF)
119 Reggie Wayne (WR IND)
122 Tatum Bell (RB DEN)
143 Brad Johnson (QB TB)
146 Chiefs Defense
167 Anthony Thomas (RB CHI)
170 Anthony Becht (TE NYJ)
181 Jerry Rice (WR OAK)



In other news, I have to mention a quick bit about Sarah. She read in one of the guidebooks that there are a lot of rabid dogs in Romania. Now, keep in mind that this is the poorest country that Sarah has ever visited, so she's already having a bit of culture shock (mostly on the low prices, but also the poverty). I will put it simply: we have seen a lot of dogs in the past few days and according to the lady from Kentucky, every one of them has rabies. Funny stuff.