German Student Gives Up Her Apartment For Life As A Train Nomad
What do you do when you're sick of your landlord's shenanigans? If you're Leonie Müller, you pack up and hit the road -- or more specifically, the train tracks.After Müller, a 23-year-old German college student, had a dispute with her landlord, she decided she'd had enough of apartment living. "I instantly decided I didn't want to live there anymore — and then I realized: Actually, I didn't want to live anywhere anymore," she told The Washington Post.Now Müller pays less than her previous monthly rent to live on a 190-mile-per-hour train that shuttles between her university, her mom's house, and her boyfriend's place. She cleans up in the train's bathroom and carries everything she needs with her in a small backpack.
Müller writes regularly about her adventures on her blog. In a recent, ebullient post she addresses the question of whether she gets stressed out or scared living this way:
Ich werde oft gefragt, ob es nicht unheimlich anstrengend ist, nie irgendwo wirklich anzukommen. Ich schreibe nun gerade, weil das hier einer der gar nicht so seltenen, wunderbaren Momente ist, an dem ich mich komplett angekommen fühle – ich bin zu Hause.
Loosely translated (with the help of four years of German classes plus Google):
I'm often asked whether it is not scary or stressful to never really arrive somewhere. I am writing now because one of the not-so-rare, wonderful moments is that I feel completely arrived -- I am at home.
On her blog, Müller acknowledges that this life may not be sustainable indefinitely: "Of course, this is not a lifestyle that you can live for decades," she writes. But for now, it's working for her.Müller told The Post: "I want to inspire people to question their habits and the things they consider to be normal." Yas, sister. I love that [inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix=""]rather than make do with a lifestyle that didn't suit her, this Gutsy Broad set her own terms.[/inlinetweet]
If you read German or have a reliable translator, you can read more about Muller's adventures here.Other Gutsy Broads Doing It Their Way: