NANTES, France – In the spring of 2000, I first had my opportunity to travel abroad, ironically, to the place that I now call home. My visit to France as a young teenager was an experience I will never forget. It was absolutely incredible to see and experience a world that I hardly knew existed. Since then I have been extremely fortunate to travel around the world (22 countries in 5 years), coming across many things that have completely changed my life.

Luckily for me, world travel is a part of my job! Each year as a professional basketball player, I have lived in a different country, and during my season in Ukraine I was traveling Eastern Europe for international competitions. It’s a beautiful thing to explore this Earth and increase your understanding of different people and cultures.

Surprisingly, you can learn a lot about yourself when learning about others. One thing that always stands out to me when I come back to Europe is the American pace of life. It seems like we are in such a rush to do everything. In Europe, I feel that the majority of people always take time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

Marcus Ginyard

With Deon Thompson (left) and Daniel Leiser (middle) at Karlsplatz in Munich. (Photo via Marcus Ginyard)

If I ever find myself with any time off from practice or games, I love to take short vacations. I always trade in my chance to go home around Christmas for a trip to a new place here in Europe. This year I spent a few days in Copenhagen, where I rung in the New Year with fellow Tar Heel and friend Daniel Leiser.

Afterward, we flew to Berlin and cruised south to Munich (cruising speed for us was approximately 135 mph). We went to Munich to visit my former UNC teammate Deon Thompson and watch him play for the German powerhouse Bayern Munich. Interestingly enough, the last time I saw Deon in Europe, we were having Christmas dinner in Berlin back in 2012.

Getting back to work after an awesome vacation like that is never easy, but believe it or not, just two weeks after coming back to France, I found myself with two more days completely off from practice. As it turns out, a direct flight from Nantes to Barcelona is only 90min! I could only stay there for about 36 hours, but it was just enough time to know that Barcelona has an incredible energy and is easily one of the nicest cities I have visited.

I’ll be back to Barcelona, just like I’ll be back to a lot of other places. But it won’t stop me from getting around to the rest of the world in the meantime!

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