A 17-year-old boy has opened up about why he chose to live on trains full-time.
A lot of us silently cry when we think about trains. But one teenager has decided to spend all of their time on trains from August 2022 onwards.
About two years ago, German Lasse Stolley chose to give up his job and move on board one of the country's national trains.
He tells the Irish Times that he "had no experience of travel," so it makes sense that his parents were worried.
That being said, the teenager packed up his things and set out to live on trains while also doing his job as a smartphone programmer.
Stolley can ride so many trains because he joined a discount membership program called BahnCard 100, which is run by Deutsche Bahn, Germany's main railway business.
Stolley bought the yearly second-class youth ticket, which cost $2,800, when he first started living on trains. Deutsche Bahn says that the ticket gives a "25 percent discount on the flexible fare and saver fares for long-distance travel."
After that, Stolley upgraded his ticket and paid $6,300 for a first-class ticket with more "spacious, comfortable seats," better "peace and quiet," and the ability to reserve a place, as well as access to DB Lounges, free wifi, and sometimes free food and drinks on ICE trains.
He says that Deutsche Bahn has "a conveyance obligation which doesn't limit how often [he] can travel" because of a law in Germany. This has allowed him to live on German trains for almost two years.
The teen thinks that he "could rent an apartment," but he doesn't know "why" he would when he has "so many friends everywhere" to hang out with and isn't "lonely."
Stolley added: "Minimalism was always my thing, and having as few things as possible means I don’t have to think about things and have more time for the beautiful things in life.
"[...] I’ve travelled 600,000km since I began in August 2022, that’s 15 times around the Earth. I enjoy the freedom of not being bound to one place."
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