In less than two years, Lasse Stolley, a 17-year-old German teenager, has already traveled 650,000 kilometers, the equivalent of 15 trips around the world, sitting on a train for more than 6,700 hours. “Being able to decide every day where I want to go, it’s just wonderful, it’s freedom,” says Lasse Stolley, during an interview with AFP in a café at Frankfurt station.
With a 30-liter backpack as his only luggage, the slender red-haired young man makes do with little, his biggest expense (5,888 euros) being the 100% first class discount card from the German railways, Deutsche Bahn.
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Thanks to this subscription, he has free access to first class lounges in stations, where he can eat meals for free and wash his clothes in the sinks which he then dries on night trains.
He brushes his teeth and washes at the sink also in these salons. To shower, however, he goes to the swimming pools near the stations.
He has gotten used to sleeping on the first-class seats, which he finds so comfortable that he now struggles to sleep in a normal bed: “I miss the rocking of the train,” he explains.
After leaving school, he found a part-time job as a freelance developer for a small start-up, which allowed him to work on the train. “I love the fact that I can just look out the window, see the landscape go by quickly… and explore every corner of Germany,” he says.
He found his soul mate at the station
However, nothing predestined him for this nomadic life. As a child, he had little interest in railways, never owned an electric train and had only taken the German high-speed train, the ICE, twice before deciding to live permanently on the rails.
After finishing high school, he planned to do an apprenticeship in programming. The latter having been cancelled, he looked around for what he could do and came across a documentary showing someone who lived on trains.
“I thought I could do the same,” he recalls. His parents initially tried to dissuade him. But, realizing that he was determined to continue his project at all costs, they finally decided to support him.
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For his first journey, he left from Fockbeck, a small town in northern Germany where he is from, located not far from the Danish border, to reach Hamburg from where he took a night train to Munich (south).
The first days were difficult, he had difficulty falling asleep on trains and frequently returned to his parents’ house. Since then, he has gotten used to it. He even found his soul mate in a first class lounge at Cologne train station.
Life on the German rail network, often criticized for its poor state after years of underinvestment, is not always easy. “Delays and other problems are daily,” recognizes Lasse Stolley.
Asked by AFP about this unusual traveler, Deutsche Bahn did not wish to comment.
For much of 2023 and early 2024, railway staff frequently went on strike for better pay and working conditions.
These walkouts paralyzed the network and forced Lasse Stolley to sleep… in airports.
However, he is not tired. When asked how long he wants to continue this itinerant life, he replies: “It could be a year, it could be five.” And added: “For the moment, I’m having fun and I’m discovering new things every day.”
