Big City Syndrome in Athens?

In his post The Spanish Trio, Saad asks the question: "is Madrid victim to BCS?" With BCS == "Big City Syndrome" defined by Saad something like:

If you already visited Paris and took public transportation (the legendary Metro for example), you have certainly been surprised at the closed, smileless, gloomy faces of Paris inhabitants. People do not talk that much to each other (I call that the Big City Syndrom, but I haven't patented that word yet). And when they talk each other, they don't speak loud and keep their voice volume set to low.

I don't know about Madrid, but Athens is a bit different, with much less BCS. There are some gloomy faces in the Metro system in the rush hour, everybody moving in and out of work. (The picture showing the older trains on the ΗΣΑΠ (ISAP) metro line 1.) But get a few minutes out of the rush hour (and often enough even in the rush hour), much more in the evening than in the morning, you will get children running around, people arguing with all their heart (even if they are strangers putting on a noisy show), lovers kissing, groups of teenagers laughing out loud. For me this is enough to save us of BCS.

On another note: That blogger thing so many people are using really should get trackback.