To her, the decision made perfect sense: Leonie Müller, a 23-year-old media student at the University of Tübingen in southern Germany, gave up her Stuttgart apartment on May 1 this year. She exchanged it for a flat-rate train ticket valid for one year that allows her to board any train in Germany.
“It all started with a dispute I had with my landlord,” Müller told The Washington Post. “I instantly decided I didn’t want to live there anymore – and then I realized: actually, I didn’t want to live anywhere anymore.”
Her current setup also made her think that this option would be more practical. She was studying in Tübingen in southern Germany and regularly visiting her boyfriend in Cologne, as well as her mother in Berlin and grandmother in the western-German town of Bielefeld. She was already doing a lot of traveling as it was.
Traveler by day
Müller covers between 1,200 and 2,000 kilometers (around 750 to 1,250 miles) each week, according to an article on German news site Spiegel Online. In her , she states that most of her travel is between Tübingen and Cologne.
Germany’s long-distance trains are mostly fast and comfortable
However, she avoids sleeping on the train. She usually spends the night at her boyfriend’s, a friend’s or relative’s place. But, as she adds in her blog, “a few hotel, Couchsurfing and Airbnb stays are also planned.”
The train mostly serves as a place to relax, read and work on university assignments. Müller’s most important acquisition this year was a pair of noise-canceling headphones that allow her to work in peace, she told Spiegel Online.
A backpack with some clothing and toiletries always goes with her, as do a tablet computer and a batch of university documents. The rest of her clothing is divided between the apartments the people she regularly stays with.
A lifestyle experiment
Müller’s blog documents her experiences as a modern nomad. It will be part of her undergraduate thesis that she will hand in to complete her degree. But now, in her summer break, she is additionally busy dealing with the ever-increasing media attention she has been receiving.
“I was planning to go to several German cities next week, but as media inquiries are crazy right now, I’ll probably stay in Cologne and try to answer and organize everything,” Müller told DW via Facebook Messenger.
“I’ll have some interviews for radio and TV, and I’ll hold a workshop for school students – though both are only possible if my voice is back by then, as I’m dealing with a cold right now,” she added.
Once all the work is over, she will jump on the train again. Before the next semester starts in October, she can use her flat-rate ticket to go places she doesn’t normally visit.
“Probably Hamburg is next,” she wrote in her Facebook message. But being able to board any train she likes, she has the freedom to change her mind at any time.
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Source: DW