I remember when I first moved to Dublin I told people that I despised suburbs. They seemed to think this was odd. It took a while to realize they thought I meant places like Rathmines (25 minute, 1 mile walk from the core of the city), and not some asphalt hellscape 30 miles away (a la Fremont, or Dublin CA for that matter).
You want space, you move to the countryside. That makes sense at least.