I like having it all

Oslo is probably a small town to most of you. The town itself is easily bikeable, and from most of the residential areas around Oslo you can also bike into town given just a little bit of oomph.
Surely, lph you don't think North America is full of urban megacities? I bet alot of Europeans and Asians perceive huge hunks of North America as the last stop (next to parts of Africa and central Australia) as having more protected large wild (and some dangerous) animals still running around. (That's reality..for Germans at least.)

Yup, I like having it all, the conveniences within a 15 min. or half hr. walk.

And I have for 3 major cities over 1 million. I grew up in a town at the time, when town was 30,000 and we lived downtown at that time too near bus stop. This is in southern Ontario...in 1960's to 1970's.

I actually don't like sleeping in country homes, that's pitch black. I have done so with friends who live in very rural areas. My partner also had a farm when I initially knew him.

Because I don't have children and have lived alone (without any dogs) at different times in life, I really don't want to sleep in a neighbourhood that is totally pitch black and isolated. I don't feel safe. Forget it.

Limewave, I've in lived in homes that have faced water body (creek in middle of downtown) or river just only a few blocks away or better a huge lake /ocean body just 5 kms. away or less. Living downtown or near a major shopping area in 3 big cities. So have been fortunate with parkland, etc. to give the pseudo country feel.

Of course all of this with bike routes running by home or less than .5 km. away.