Teenager spends £8500-a-year to live permanently on trains after leaving parent's home
Most people can barely stomach their daily train journeys into work, let alone the idea of living on one - but this lad reckons kipping in a carriage is like staying at The Ritz.
Lasse Stolley, 17, is probably living out locomotive-enthusiast Francis Bourgeois' dream, as he literally - and legally - lives on various Deutsche Bahn trains.
He counts the constant 'choo choos' and the racket which hordes of commuters who clamber on board each morning make as his alarm clock, while using the seats they park their arses on as a glorified mattress.
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The German teenager and self-proclaimed 'digital nomad' says that although privacy 'doesn't exist at all' in his unusual living quarters, he loves the freedom and flexibility it gives him.
Stolley boasted that he travels a approximately 600 miles a day throughout the country, seeing him hop on and hop off wherever his heart desires.
He told Business Insider: "If I feel like travelling to the sea, I take the train north in the morning.
"If I long for the hustle and bustle of the big city, then I look for a connection to Berlin or Munich, or I take the express train to the Alps for a hiking trip."
Basically, German rail routes are his oyster.
The youngster reckons he has travelled more than 300,000 miles on the tracks since leaving his parents home in in Fockbek, Schleswig-Holstein, when he was just 16-years-old. Which is a pretty mean feat, to be fair.
He explained that he flew the nest and landed in a train carriage after his career plans to train as an IT specialist were cancelled at the last-minute, while also being inspired by a YouTube documentary he had seen.
Stolley instead signed up Germany's rail discount scheme and bought himself a Bahncard 100, which is similar to the UK's Railcard, and has been enjoyed unlimited travel ever since.
He said: "My school days were behind me and the whole world was open to me. So in the summer of 2022, I decided to give in to my wanderlust, leave my parents’ house behind and embark on a huge adventure."
The lad's mum and dad were obviously concerned about the idea initially, forcing him to do a 'lot of convincing' before they agreed to clarify the legalities of it together and help him flog his belongings from his childhood bedroom.
Stolley gets his work as a programmer done in the day, before chilling out in first class carriages, getting his head down on night trains and refuelling the following morning with grub from one of the Deutsche Bahn lounges.
He has to shower in public swimming pools and leisure centres, while leading a very minimalistic lifestyle as all of his possessions have to fit in his 36-litre backpack.
The teen stuffs four t-shirts, two pairs of pants, toiletries, a neck pillow and a travel blanket inside, but says the 'most important' belongings he has are his laptop and noise-cancelling headphones which help him tune out on the train.
As well as substance over style, organisation is also key, obviously.
Stolley continued: "Every night, I have to make sure that I catch the night train and sometimes I have to reschedule very quickly because it suddenly doesn’t arrive.
"I use the app to organise the next connection in the evening and sleep while I race along the tracks towards my destination. I don’t have a place to retreat to. My home is the train."
The lad, who shares his train diaries on his blog Life on the Train, says it costs him around £8,500 a year to live on the trains - and he hopes rail companies will eventually give him a job out of it.
He added: "My wish would be to give feedback to the transport companies, for example Deutsche Bahn or the train manufacturers, and to be compensated for it. But let’s see."
Topics: Travel, Weird, World News, News
Olivia Burke