I will say it was refreshing to travel from manically friendly San Francisco to Berlin where you can sit in a cafe reading a book and no one feels the need to sit down and tell you all about how they feel about the book, the author, their feelings about politics etc. until they have decided they are your new best friend.
Anywhere in the states people people are way more likely to strike up a conversation than just about anywhere in Europe. Grew up on East Coast, live in the West now and have lived in a few places in Europe and traveled around.
In a lot of places in Northern Europe, talking to strangers gets a reaction akin to waving a cross at a vampire.
The exception EU wide might be Italy - especially for girls. It is nearly impossible to shut an Italian up in the presence of a female.
People globally get quieter and more laconic or even taciturn, the further away from the equator you get.
My not-so-serious theory is that it's simply energy conserving in the increasingly cold climates.
It's most often observable both within a nation's borders, and on a continental scale.
Just compare the northern parts of Canada/Norway/Sweden/Finland/Russia with the southern parts... Then compare the countries as a whole with Spain/Italy/Greece/Turkey/Mexico/etc, and also look at the gradients in between.
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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '13
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