Sounds like London

My brother lives in a small village and knows and sees many people.

I live in London and know virtually no-one outside family.

BTW on the beers I thought the US had a lot of startup micro breweries giving more choice . (I seem to remember reading that somewhere)

>>I was just thinking about getting my home brew equipment out and starting on something for Christmas.
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>Or for drinking.
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>>So from the sound of it for you quality of life has improved markedly.
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>It's just different. I have pretty much the same level of comfort as I had over there. The food is better, the beer is better, the roads are worse, the speed of my internet is about 1/3 of what I was used to, the administration is just as spotty (surprisingly neat and fast in some cases, and bloody stupid and dragging its feet in others - not all of these to my disadvantage).
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>One thing is drastically different - we've met more people (including the first time encounters) and talked more in these three months than we did in years over there. You don't have to belong to the same church or club or anything to make contact. It's still as spontaneous as it always was. You stop to buy tomatoes on the street, an old woman is selling just what she grows in her back yard, sitting on a stool at her gates, and you hear her life story plus some :). Our mason (some roof reconstruction due to start tomorrow) has mentioned more people in his two or three visits so far than I ever got to know in my neighborhood there. And the city being smaller, around 80k people, everyone you meet somehow knows someone you know.
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>Not that I didn't have such spontaneous encounters over there, it's just that that moment when they've lost interest in further conversation doesn't come as fast, or at all. And, above all, loitering doesn't exist as a word. You can stand anywhere and talk as long as you want with anyone, nobody will mind.