‘The 52 Places Traveller’ says it's the hardest job he's ever had
The 31 year old just wrapped up his gig as "The 52 Places Traveler," for which he visited all 52 places on The New York Times' annual "52 Places to Travel" list in the span of a year
Fifty-two countries, 88 flights, 45 train trips, and 48 boat rides- that's how Sebastian Modak spent his 2019.
The 31 year old just wrapped up his gig as "The 52 Places Traveler," for which he visited all 52 places on The New York Times' annual "52 Places to Travel" list in the span of a year, reports the Insider.
Modak was born in New Jersey to a Colombian mother and Indian father. As a result of his father's telecommunications job, he moved from one country to the next every few years, and previously told Insider that he always regarded his childhood homes as temporary.
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He has lived in Australia, India, Indonesia, and Botswana, to name a few, and worked as a traveling musician, MTV producer, and Condé Nast Traveller editor and writer, making him a natural fit for the role of the '52 Places Traveller' of The New York Times.
Modak spent an average of six days in every destination, going from one to the next, to the next, without breaks to go home.
"I didn't have a day off for a full year. No weekends, no day off. There was always something to do every day," Modak said, adding that he slept an average of five or six hours that whole year.
"It was like the ultimate FOMO. It's not just that you fear you're going to miss out on having an experience that you can have as a traveller, in a vacation area, I also wanted to get up early and hit the road because I had to, because I needed to take more photos and find a story, interview more people. So I had that pressure throughout the whole year," he explained.
"Yeah it was a dream job. It was also the hardest job I've ever had. I think probably the hardest job I ever will have."
Modak thinks everyone should go into new places with the curiosity of a journalist, 'It's just going to open them up so much more to you.'
While he couldn't pick a favourite place out of the 52 he visited in 2019, Modak says that Siberia surprised him the most.
He wants anyone scared of solo travel to understand that there is such a thing as bliss in solitude.
