Menzel column Danger’s role in
MID-SEASON, right in the middle of our winter.
It’s the time of year when people wish for warmer weather and can’t wait for summer to come around.
It’s also the time of year when many Australians holiday in Europe in search of a European summer.
I reminisce on my experiences over there in summer and my teammates can only wonder what it would be like.
On Instagram alone, you are made aware of just how good the Greek Islands are looking, how many people ride a bike around Amsterdam, the parties and boats in Croatia or maybe the fiestas in Spain.
The urge for a holiday certainly kicks in and I imagine many footballers start planning their end of year trips.
Just this week, I booked a trip to Bali for the off-season, as did several of my teammates.
For now, the focus is well and truly on what success we can achieve this year, but for some sides, the off-season is just over a month away.
I genuinely look forward to having an off-season once it comes around as for me they have been few and far between.
Over my seven seasons at Geelong, I haven’t had many where I have been able to head away overseas to make the most of our time off because for many I’ve had to stay back and do rehab.
Last year was one of my first off-seasons without a longterm injury and so I made the most of it and headed to America for five weeks with a few mates.
I was, however, very fortunate throughout my injuries to still get away to some great places.
After I tore my ACL for the second time, and with another year of rehab on the cards, the club let me go overseas, for five weeks to Europe.
This then happened again after my fourth ACL tear and so in thinking about how difficult mentally it was going to be in rehab for another extended period, the club let me get away again overseas to men- tally freshen up. It was one of the real positives to take out of my injuries, being able to spend June/July in the European summer twice.
So, having travelled to Europe twice, America a couple of times (albeit one of those was to train), as well as adventuring around Asia multiple times, I feel like I have ventured around a lot of the globe.
My latest trip to America was amazing and I wouldn’t have changed much. We started in Las Vegas and went to Cancun, Miami, New York, Nashville, Dallas, Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Phoe- nix, San Fran and Los Angeles to finish. Vegas was what we anticipated and more, Cancun was busy even though it wasn’t peak season, and New York has so much to do.
But a few of my favourite places are not your most common cities, such as Nashville, Dallas and Chicago.
Nashville is a relaxed country town that turns it on come the weekend. A lot of people from outside Nashville fly in for the weekend and enjoy themselves.
It has a country flavour but certainly isn’t over the top if you are not into country music. The thing that stood out to me was how relaxed people were there and the simplicity of the city.
The main street has rooftop bars all the way down on both sides, which is certainly the place to be.
It is very much a happy and infectious place. People will often miss it in their travels as it is in Tennessee which isn’t close to the mainstream cities.
Dallas, Texas. This was one of our favourite places, partly because our experience being amplified by our first College football game played at Texas Christian University.
The whole event was so impressive, which is what College sports have become renowned for as the students and universities turn it into an all-day experience, with tailgating being a highlight.
There is a lot of money in Texas Sports programs and therefore the stadium was very impressive.
We also got along to AT&T Stadium to watch the Dallas Cowboys play the Philadelphia Eagles and the atmosphere there was as good as I’ve ever experienced. There is a huge big screen above the middle of the field that is 70 yards long. A fascinating city to explore.
Chicago was another place that we loved, a city that draws comparisons to Melbourne. It is a proud sporting city with a lot going on, one of the bigger cities in America. We got to see the Chicago Bulls play but much better than that, we were there when the Chicago Cubs broke their 108-year drought to win the Major-League Baseball World Series.
That night was the best of the trip and insane to say the least.
In Asia, everyone knows about Bali and Thailand, but another place I’ve been to a couple of times is Hong Kong. A very rugged city, but HK offers plenty of culture and with the Happy Valley Races and Macau nearby, it provided plenty of entertainment.
On to Europe. I have visited most countries in Europe, due to spending five weeks there on both occasions. My favourite cities would have to be London, England, as there is so much on offer, but I also loved the laid-back nature of Dublin, Ireland.
A couple of others were Barcelona, Spain, with its fiestas being great to experience and Prague, Czech Republic, which is probably one of the most underrated cities in Europe. The other is Berlin, Germany, as it has an unbelievable amount of history and a great mix between the new and the old infrastructure.
My two favourites though and if you’re planning on doing a European summer, they are a standout — the Greek Islands.
There are multiple islands to visit, but the two that we loved were Ios and Santorini.
Ios has good beaches and is an incredible party island that is ideal for your younger generation.
Santorini is much more relaxing and a very pretty island. I would recommend exploring it by hiring four wheelers and driving around the whole island in a day.
My other favourite is the Croatian islands. You can do these in multiple ways, but I would recommend doing Sail Croatia as you get to see up to five islands in the week, with about 30 other people on your boat as well as coming across a lot of different people each night when you dock on the different islands.
The water is incredible around here and it is just the perfect laid-back adventure. Even the night-life has a relaxing and friendly feel to it.
This is a must-do for when travelling Europe in the summer.
I’ve been fortunate with the places that I have been able to experience and so always look forward to planning the next one, so as you look outside and just ponder how cold it is, picture your next holiday as everyone needs a getaway every now and then.
Just hopefully for me and my teammates, it’s after a win on the last day in September.