16.10.2025
Every summer, European and Estonian railway stations fill with light and joyful excitement – it is the arrival of young people who are going to travel alone for the first time. They are not tourists in the old sense of the word, nor digital nomads looking for a sunnier life besides WiFi and shared offices. They are the train generation – the DiscoverEU generation – 18-year-olds with an Interrail pass in their pocket and a thirst for encounters, experiences and freedom in their hearts.
Since 2018, the Erasmus+ travel programme DiscoverEU has given more than 250,000 young Europeans free train tickets to explore the continent. Hundreds of young Estonians have taken advantage of this opportunity, and Rail Baltic Estonia is offering scholarships to cover the rest of the trip for those who come up with the best travel plans. For many, this is their first big journey – a kind of coming-of-age ritual. For them, Europe is not an abstract political idea, but a living geography – train times, hostels and hiking trails full of new acquaintances and chance encounters that change everything.
How to make new friends and fresh cinnamon rolls in Oxford
“I had never traveled by train outside of Estonia before,” says Katrina, who started her journey in Dublin and ended in Berlin. “Rail transport is very well developed and it is comfortable and fun to travel by it.”
Her itinerary sounded like a chapter from an English textbook: Dublin, Liverpool, Oxford, London, Berlin – cities whose names are already small cultural charges. Katrina admits that she has always been drawn to big cities, places she has read about before, where some interesting historical event has taken place, where the plot of a film or book that has deeply affected her takes place, etc.
Katrina describes her expectations exactly as a young traveler would imagine an ideal European film location: in Dublin she wanted to “see the famous Trinity College”, in Liverpool to follow in the footsteps of The Beatles, Oxford as a more relaxed and academic city, in London the red phone booths, going to the theatre, visiting museums such as Natural History and endless souvenir shops. In Berlin she hoped to experience something she describes as “a very youthful environment”.
It sounds like a meaningful escape: a world imagined through textbooks, books, and movies finally becomes real, real with just one railway line.
But really? In Oxford, a chance meeting in a cafe Katrina unexpectedly led to one of the most British adventures imaginable. “I was reading a book in a cafe in Oxford when an older English man and woman sat next to me. I started talking to them and it turned out that the woman was a stewardess and the man was a pilot, they had been married for 25 years and were in Oxford to celebrate their grandson’s first birthday.” They were also tourists in the city. What followed was like a scene from Jane Austen with Wes Anderson colors added. “Along the way, there was a cafe with wonderfully fragrant cinnamon rolls and we decided to go there together. They made me a cinnamon roll and we talked about Estonia and traveling.” When they finally got on the boat, the oarsman was, according to Katrina, a so-called guide her age, from whom she learned a lot of exciting things.
The ride ended like good English conversations do: “When the boat ride was over, we exchanged phone numbers and sent each other pictures.”
Moments like these are repeated across Europe – with different faces, but with similar warmth. The kindness of strangers, small hassles, and the gradual learning of independence.
Paula, who was traveling from Cyprus to Paris, was left without accommodation at one point in the middle of her trip when her friend in Italy unexpectedly withdrew her invitation to visit. “That call really hit home… for a moment I just had a feeling that why am I doing all this, it would be so easy in Estonia.” But instead of giving up, she spontaneously traveled to Bologna, paid more than planned for a hostel room, but also found more joy than planned walking the narrow streets and hanging out on the terraces of pizzerias. “It’s impossible to just rush around for a month,” she later admitted. “Let yourself rest!”
A quiet rebellion in the age of flight
There is a quiet rebellion in train travel. It is a conscious decision to take time out when everything around us is speeding up. Flights can be really cheap, but train travel is becoming a conscious lifestyle among young people – not just for the environment, but also for the experience.
Kaupo, who traveled with a friend through Amsterdam, Paris, Interlaken, located between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz in the heart of the Swiss Alps, Rome, Venice and Vienna, described the railway as “very powerful – fast, dense and efficient”. The young man from Tartu recalled that his first train ride took him to the Tallinn Zoo with his grandmother: “Going to a big city was a life event back then.” Now he had discovered the power of the European network.
"Rail Baltica would open up the opportunity for young people to discover Europe," he adds, looking to the future, and believes that it would have a positive impact on both the preservation of culture and the cultural awareness of young people.
Simona travelled to Italy, the Netherlands and the UK and considers rail to be one of the best modes of transport in Europe. According to her, the trip gave her independence and courage, taught her to be considerate of others and showed her how diverse and accessible Europe can be through train connections. “Rail Baltica could definitely bring young people here to travel,” she said confidently.
These trips open up a new sense of space – geography becomes closer to you. From Vienna to Zurich, from Paris to Prague – Europe seems smaller and more alive.
Solitude, discovery, and the art of talking to strangers
Almost all of the young people in DiscoverEU mention loneliness. Not as something tragic, but as something inevitable and necessary. “There was this fatigue of thinking for yourself,” said Katrina. “It helped to get over it by sitting down and reading a book or calling family members.” She added: “If I have a good feeling about someone and I believe the best in them, they believe the best in me too, and people are willing to open up to me.”
Paula found her own method: smiling. “I smiled at everyone to make myself seem as friendly and sociable as possible (except when it would have been dangerous).”
This is a generation that has grown up on the internet but craves real interaction again – casual, uncomfortable, human.
When Europe feels like home
All these train travel stories from young Estonians are united by the feeling that Europe is no longer “out there” – it is home. For Estonians born after 2004, the European Union has always existed; their parents remember border controls, they don’t.
“Rail Baltica definitely has the potential to introduce Estonia to the world,” says Katrina. Paula agrees: “I think Rail Baltica can definitely bring more train passengers to Estonia. When I was on the DiscoverEU trip, people were very interested in Estonia.”
Kaupo added that the train network itself is like a utopia – a Europe that works, moves on time and brings people closer to each other.
Andreas, who traveled alone through Scandinavia, summed it up: “Europe feels smaller and bigger at the same time – smaller because it’s easy to get around; bigger because you realize how much there is still to see and understand.”
Journey as education
If Erasmus programs are a lesson in cultural exchange, DiscoverEU is a fun form of field trip, like a class excursion, just without classmates. These young people don’t talk about monuments or museums, but about learning – how to plan, how to improvise, how to cope. “I also really started to like reading!” admitted Paula. Kaupo learned patience, Katrina trust. And Simona added: “I learned that a lot can go wrong, but if I have a good feeling and I believe the best, people believe the best in me too.”
Perhaps this is the main thing that traveling can teach Estonian youth, besides cultures and geography – that empathy, curiosity, and faith in others still move faster than any train.
DiscoverEU scholarship – what, how and for whom?
DiscoverEU is an Erasmus+ programme that gives 18-year-olds the opportunity to discover Europe by train. The competition, which takes place twice a year, awards free travel passes that allow you to visit almost 30 European countries for up to one month. You can travel alone or with a group of up to four friends. In addition, young people receive discounts on accommodation, transport, culture and more.Every spring, Rail Baltic Estonia provides five young Estonians with a 500-euro travel grant, which helps cover food, accommodation, and other travel expenses.
The story was first published on 15.10.2025 As a content marketing story for Õhtuleht
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