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Sebastian Modak is visiting every destination on The New York Times’s list of 52 Places to Go in 2019. He passed the halfway point of his journey in Zadar, Croatia. It was a good time to discuss the challenges and take stock of the thrills that have come with the assignment. “I don’t fully understand how I’m still going,” he said (from the Azores) in a Q. and A. on the website Reddit. An edited selection of that exchange follows.

Which experience sticks out in your memory the most?

There are many answers. But one that pops into the front of my mind, right off the bat, was in Uzbekistan. I put my trust in a stranger (and now a very good friend), and ended up in a village about an hour outside of Samarkand — the only foreigner in a crowd of thousands. They were there to watch a game of kopkari, where about 200 dudes on horseback fight over the stuffed carcass of a goat. Not only did I feel insanely privileged to witness this tradition, but the kindness I saw in the people there who wanted to share it with me really blew me away. I can still taste the dust.

Can you suggest a good place for someone who has not traveled much before? And have you encountered many overcrowded places?