The consistent ideal for the rooms on this peregrination has been a bright, open minimally furnished place with an abundance of fresh air and sunlight. Ideally, sufficient cultural life in the city--theatre and music, usually around $5-$10 per ticket, as the market hasn't been artificially constrained to make it a luxury good, and the state/foundation support goes right to the art, rather than building the marketing mechanisms necessary for selling the luxury good. More basically, the ability to run in the morning (pace air pollution, dogs, safety). Research libraries in the area with some collections in English have proved useful.
The local ideas of happiness, though, seem to enter on "cozy", heavily furnished and decorated spaces well insulated from air, and occasionally sunlight. I wandered through the main residential developments over the weekend, and was struck that even in the mountains, they build close, cozy spaces in insular communities. Much the same phenomenon in the country directly to the west that was also part of the old republic. The materials of brutalism assist in this. They become vine-draped caves rather than portals to the light.
Eluding local ideas of happiness is the first, and necessary step to escaping the local sleep. Put me in a cozy, hygge room in the center of the hobbit village, and I will light a small lamp, devote all my energies to focusing the mind, and wait for the opportunity to leave.