[ido]

I agree about your assessments of north-Germans, but I haven't found south-Germans (or at least Austrians, which everyone tell me are ± the same as Bavarians) any better - in fact in my 8 years in Vienna I found the natives a lot less friendly/colder than in my now 9 years in Berlin.

[UweSchmidt]

Berlin isn't "north-German" culturally, it is a very distinct cultural sphere and probably good for making some friends.

Note that behind the aparent coldness of Germans lies a promise of eternal, deep friendship once you break through :-)

[bowsamic]

Yeah I live in Hamburg and you basically have to stick with non Germans if you want to make friends in a reasonable timeframe. Many native Germans seem to guard friendship as an extremely precious thing that should only be given after much deliberation, while in a lot of other cultures it is given out relatively freely, after just one or two meetings even