Week 4 Power Rankings

As an excuse to post photos from my trip to the Med, I'll rank the teams and locations visited in order of rating. You can click on each photo to expand its size. If there is interest, I can post some maybe NSFW out-takes...

1. Tuna

Juggernaut for now, still scores almost 100 points despite zero points from QB. Handcuffing of Seattle RBs paid off last week. Next 2 games relatively easy matchups but huge showdown with Kevin in 3 weeks.

Dubrovnik, Croatia - Great walkable Old Town. Game of Thrones filming site for King's Landing. Great kayaking location. Very nice lunch of fresh fish. You can walk around the city walls but I didn't due to talking the Game of Thrones walking tour and kayaking instead. All-around, my favorite port stop due to variety of things to do and easy accessibility on foot or local taxi.

Old Town Dubrovnik - ie. King's Landing in Game of Thrones

Fort that is the setting for the Red Keep

Steps where Cersei did her walk of shame

2. Kevin

2 100+ points in first 3 weeks. Marvin Jones a great draft pick, and Kevin gets back LeVeon Bell this week. Looks to be the early favorite to win the Caucasian division.

Kotor, Montenegro - Montenegro is one of the best values in the Med. The views are spectacular in the Kotor Bay area, and if time is available, the climb up the old fortress is a must-do. I also got a ride and stopped by the beach town of Budva, which is more developed but does not have as nice a view of the mountains. Looks like the place to do some active outdoors activities if you stay longer. Bonus points for my impression of Montenegro is that it had the best-looking women out of all the ports visited.

Views from steps up the fortress behind Old Town.

St. Stefan Island

If you look reaaally closely, that's a nude beach below

The steps up the fortress. I only made it up to the chapel about 1/3 way up due to time constraints. View was amazing nonetheless.

3. Justin

Will Carolina lay another egg soon? Doubtful. I don't think Cam is going to be limited to under 10 points again vs. ATL. Possibly has second-best trio of WRs in the league. Would still be undefeated if he played one of his 2 good WRs instead of a Cleveland RB.

Pompeii / Amalfi Coast, Italy - Ruins in Pompeii were half educational, half R-rated. Apparently the city has penis carvings on the walls and roads to direct its men to the red light districts. Amalfi coast had very pretty buildings and scenery. Also, lots of lemons grown in these parts, lemoncillo is a specialty but I didn't buy any due to weight constraints for my luggage.

Pompeii grounds

Room in brothel house. Good thing the lighting obscured a bit of the mural to make it somewhat SFW.

Positano on the Amalfi Coast

Amalfi

4. Donny

The league's most consistent team with 81, 78, 79 points so far. Paradoxically, Donny also has the worst managerial efficiency. What does this mean? It means Donny's team has upside and if he finally picks the right QB and WRs to start for a week, he has a good chance of claiming high score of the week.

Corfu - The only Greek island we stopped by, it had some excellent views and good shopping. Unlike other Greek islands to the south, Corfu is more green and developed. Riding on its roads, you can see spectacular views of Albania and Greece mainland mountains beyond the clear azure water.

View of Paleokastritsa beach

View from Corfu port

Achilleon Palace

Paleokastritsa Greek Orthodox Monastery

5. PJ

The league's remaining undefeated team. But it's all a mirage. A 10-17 breakdown record with a 3-0 actual record just screams "Team Katy" levels of luck. Yes, his RB starters were both on bye, but PJ picked the wrong time to load up on Dolphins on Thursday. But with his luck this year, he still may be able to beat Matt.

Toulon - A bit higher than it should really be in the rankings, just like PJ's team. But in keeping with the Navy theme and my personal fandom of navy warships, I'm placing both PJ and Toulon as #5. Other than the harbor boat tour to view French and other NATO warships, there is a rather large farmer's market right off the docks. Also, a nice cute French cashier in a supermarket agreed to ~~launder~~ change a 500 Euro bill for me on just buying a lemonade drink, unlike the bank which refused to do so since I didn't have an account there.

Toulon Harbor

German Frigate Augsburg

French Guided Missile Destroyer Forbin

Amphibious Assault Ship Tonnerre and US Destroyer Ross

6. Hai

As AJ Green goes, so goes this team. Hai has underachieved given the talent level of his roster. Right now, Hai is capable of scoring 120 points or 50 points. Having 5 pro-bowl level WRs means a viable 3-WR strategy, and I think Hai will improve as the season rolls on.

Pisa / Florence - It was close deciding where to place Hai and Matt, and where to rank Florence and Venice. In the end, I gave Hai Florence because that is the best place in Italy to shop for leather goods (ie. shoes). I also consider Florence the culinary capital of Italy. In 2014, they opened a new food court in a former indoor market. I visited the place and it was foodie nivarna. Tuscan style steak, pasta with white truffle shavings, pizzas galore, tons of prosciutto hams, the best extra virgin olive oil in the world, yummy! Too crowded to take good photos in this town, however.

View of Florence across the Arno river

Florence food court offering

Tuscany vineyard and olive grove

7. Matt

I think this team will end up close to .500, but asides from Aaron Rodgers, there is no other player who can be considered a stud, not counting kickers. Dez Bryant has been a disappointment and Devonte Freeman gets a lot of TDs vultured by Coleman. Still, Matt Forte has been good value and Doug Baldwin can explode when Russell Wilson gets healthy again.

Venice - Venice on the surface is considered a must-see by many. True, the canals looked lovely from the cruise ship while sailing into the port. It is one of the most walkable large cities in Italy, with a flat terrain and plenty of signs to help you navigate the winding and often narrow alleys. I don't think even Hai can get lost here, maybe he would just take the longer route. So what's bad about this place? Having to deal with tourist hordes, especially the dreaded Chinese variety near the main tourist spots. Expensive prices - 1.50 Euros just to use the public restrooms. Shopping is extensive but you have to recognize that a lot of stores sell cheap Chinese knockoffs.

Realto bridge

Grand Canal scene

Big church away from tourist hordes

8. Byron

Kudos to whoever is running this team for improving each week. This team, while still having significant issues at WR and QB, is no longer an easy speedbump - it now has a 13-14 breakdown record. Still, concerns about the mysterious team management process (do they know how to do waiver wire pickups? What happens when the bye weeks really come?) drag their rating down to near the poverty level.

Nice - While the ship actually docked in Monte Carlo, I took the local train to Nice, which is about 25 minutes away, to soak in the French riviera scene. Nice was the tragic site of an ISIS-inspired attack on France's independence day, so it was a bittersweet visit for me. The beach is actually all pebbles, so highly recommended not to go barefoot here. Unlike Hai, I don't know how to stealthily take street photos so I got yelled at by an assault rifle-wielding soldier for taking a photo of his squad on patrol. I did apologize in American-accented French so I guess he properly identified me as a clueless tourist. FYI: Italian soldiers guarding the main tourist sites don't like their picture taken of either (I saw them scold others, I already had learned my lesson by then).

French Riviera scenes

Memorials to July 14 terror attack victims

9. Vu

We seriously may have a first-to-worst scenario here. 33 points??? More troubling indication for upside is that the 33 points were relatively efficient in terms of managing. Injuries to Gronk and JJ Watt won't help either. Loading up on Texans may not have been such a hot strategy this year for Vu.

Rome - Since I've been here a couple of times already, there weren't many new things to impress me. Of course, history fans like me always appreciate all the sites, but you really need more than a day to cover them in detail. Public transportation is still better than DC's, so it's pretty easy to get around. However, don't take the train back to the cruise port from the main termini station, it's like a kilometer walk to the regional suburban train platforms. Vatican city still packed, but a better place to catch the train.

View atop St. Peter's Basilica

Victor Emanuel II Monument

Pantheon

Ancient football stadium

10. Victor

While close to the middle class for scoring and breakdown, being the only team without a win means a place in the cellar. Don't let the #3 managerial efficiency fool you. Victor missed out a chance to beat Juggernaut Tuna by foolishly meddling in his roster despite limited internet and information away on the cruise. Had Victor just kept Fleener at TE, he would have beaten Tuna. Asides the previouly mentioned TE spot, however, Victor won't have any real weakness on paper when Tom Brady comes back from suspension next week, and looks to be a threat to climb in the rankings.

Sicily / Taormina - Well, a place had to be at the bottom of the rankings. Look at the "horrible" scenery below. How "terrible"! Unfortunately, getting off the ship and actually getting around was indeed a horrible experience. Partly my fault, we tried to take the hop-on hop-off bus right off the dock but the line was long and so walked about 10 minutes to the previous stop. And then waited. And waited. An hour later, with no bus in sight, we were able to get a refund. And then found a van drive who was willing to drive us around for essentially the same cost as the combined total for the hop-on hop-off bus. The roads up to Taormina and Castelmola had tight steep curves and then we had a massive downpour during the 30 min trip. Saving grace was it stopped raining by the time we reached Castelmola, and we would have been soaked walking around if we had taken the bus earlier. Not much to do besides walk around and window shop. Food not as good as Florence, buildings not as pretty as Amalfi, and shopping not as good as any of the earlier Italian stops.

Mt. Etna - if I come to Sicily next time, and had more time, would do the hike up this volcano.