Contradictions..

Amsterdam, like a pitoresque village. Small, lovely, easy to get a grip on.
But the people, hasty and individualistic, living to rigid time schedules.
Barcelona, huge, imposant, world-city. Chaotic and busy, claxoning from queing traffic day and night.
But the people so relaxed and at ease, socially orientated, living the minute, without schedules, without a set calendar.
It should be vice versa, if you look at the construction, the frame of the two cities, but the cultural aspects seem to have conquered, and how!

Back in lovely Barcelona, after half a year in Amsterdam, I´m amazed for the second time by this bizarre phenomena.

While in Amsterdam you have a quick and polite chat with the barkeeper in your favorite bar when you haven´t been there in a while, before he runs off to continue his job, here in Barcelona everything will be set aside for an extended update. Somebody wants to order a beer? He or she will have to wait, because in that particular moment you´re the most important person there.
Might this be the answer to the more than common lame service in Barcelonesian bars and restaurants (I estimate that there´s a lot of money to be made in horeca consultancy here..)? If so, I am even beginning to appreciate it..

But still I am amazed by the contradiction between my two favorite cities. It´s not just the northern individualism that states the pace in Holland. Catalans for instance, are also individualistic people, especially regarding ´new blood´ in their environment.
It seems that individualism reckons with two different measurements: while Barcelonesian people see indivualism as a bit of privacy, in which family and close friends are the most important assets (individualism with a social topping so to speak), can we, Dutch folk, be individualistic in everything. For us, self development is the magic word, and the sooner we reach the clouds, the better. And if there´s no other way, we might even reach it regardless of others. YOU, as a person, always come first. Career & worklife are ranked high in our top 5: ´live for working´ might fit this view on life.
Here in Spain people work for a living, and family & friends are the number one.

Might that be the difference then? And if so, might we state that environment is not a major influence on behaviour, but behaviour and environment balance each other? That would then mean that even in an immensely chaotic and busy city like Mexico City, the ´mañana, mañana´, the ´relax and live the moment´ can be the main aspect of life.. And additionally, might it be just thát aspect, that makes a chaotic city more liveable? If that actually is the case, would then maybe the pitoresque, village-like frame of Amsterdam guard us running, hasting individualists against fatal burn-outs?

We can only guess...