Sepp Köpf traveled a lot. It was journeys that have shaped him to this day. He was able to experience what others sometimes dreamed of: getting to know foreign cultures, perceiving the most unusual smells, sleeping on the most beautiful beaches and experiencing things that were beautiful and scary, dangerous and amusing. When he thinks back on it, he smiles. He doesn’t want to miss a single second of it, let alone a single day. “These trips have shaped me,” says the now 64-year-old.
If he summarizes all his travels, then he was on the road for seven years. He recorded what he experienced in diaries and wrote it down with all his thoughts and emotions. He even summarized the many smells in South America and Asia in words. From this he wrote a very personal and interesting travel book and accompanied it with pictures, it is called “On the way”. “Every time I read the diaries, I relived the journey. I noticed the smells, the hustle and bustle or sometimes I also felt the silence, ”says the native of Schwangau. For Sepp Köpf, writing is not just a form of expression. “Writing means a lot to me. It calms you down, the reflection on what you have experienced is more intense and the choice of words is more careful. A written word stays and somehow it’s also therapy, ”he says.
On December 4th, 1977 the big trip to South America started. Friends, family and acquaintances came to say goodbye to him. Even the brass music was not missing. “It was really amazing. Our neighbor Resi had prepared a consecrated candle and a five-mark piece for each of us, which she handed over in tears, ”says his diary. Today Sepp Köpf can understand what fears mothers and grandmothers had for their sons and grandchildren. “It wasn’t like today. We were not always available everywhere. My mother sent me letters to the post office or to the embassy. Sometimes it took weeks before she got a letter from me and I from her. ”He spoke on the phone only once in a total of six months. “Back then, three minutes cost 56 marks,” he recalls. He took a lot with him from his travels. Findings, but also interesting business ideas, which he later implemented with his brother Barny. In Brazil there were the so-called “Lanchonetes” and “Botequim” (corner bar) a mixture of restaurant, bar and snack bar, which they often went to due to their small travel budget. Because there you could eat and drink cheaply and you met many like-minded people. They took this idea with them. The “Milchhäusl”, a small, former dairy business, became a “Lanchonete”. Success was inevitable, on the contrary. The guests found the central location and the nice beer garden quaint and the gem developed more and more into a scene meeting place for globetrotters and for those who were looking for adventure and dreams. Everyone who came in saw the world map with lots of pins on it. Those were places where Sepp and Barny Köpf were out and about. It was here that the idea of cycling to India was born. They say that once you’ve been on a long trip, you get addicted to more. It was like that with Sepp Köpf. “It was like a drive,” he nods in the affirmative. Only two years after the “Milchhäusl” opened in 1980, nothing stopped him. This time his trip to India was to be by bicycle – an undertaking that was quite unusual at the time. Today the racing bike and the route can be seen in the shop window of the “Todos” bike rental shop in Schwangau.
Sepp Köpf can still remember the question his mother asked when he said that he will be on the road again: You have only just come, do you have to leave now? “It’s not easy when you come back home. You may have separated yourself a little because you have seen and experienced a lot. Suddenly you feel strange and cramped. Traveling has made me more mature and understanding. Suddenly you look at things and situations from different perspectives. In short, you broaden your horizons, ”he says honestly. In fact, at some point there was a longing to leave Germany and emigrate to Brazil. “I moved to Brazil in 2003 with my wife and daughter. It was the happiest time in our life. We had a little house on the beach. I can go on vacation there anytime. Brazil has changed since then and so have I. Today, people my age have an eye on medical care and not necessarily on adventure, ”laughs Köpf. His family wanted to go back to the Allgäu and he followed them. That was in 2014.
South America still has a magic effect on him today. It is the language, culture and the joie de vivre of the locals that fascinate him so much. He met many people on his travels and he is still in contact with some of them. “When I see my communication today, it is very global,” says the multilingual from Schwangau. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He has been learning French for a year. The fact that he can no longer make long and strenuous journeys does not bother him. “Everything has its time and I don’t like sleeping in tents anymore. I want it to be more comfortable, which doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be on the road again, ”says Sepp Köpf with a smile. “Russia would be interesting. But now we are first heading towards the Balkans. It is the same starting route as it was back then by bike. However, my girlfriend and I are traveling by car and this time we are going through Albania and Greece. ”A globetrotter is always one or, as Kurt Tucholsky put it:“ Traveling is the longing for life. ”
INFO:
It is an amusing and honest book with an insight into interesting encounters, mind games and emotions. The author takes the reader with him on his daily travels. “Unterwegs” is available in the Seitz und Auer bookstore in Füssen, in the “Biersouvenir” shop, Schrannengasse 8 in Füssen and at TODOS in Schwangau.
Text: Sabina Riegger · Fotos: privat
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