In Sligo, where I'm from the public transport is something I've never really used and the few times I did, the bus took forever to arrive, the bus route was very short. Sligo isn't a large town so, there's only so far it needs to go but, the few times I did take it, it didn't leave me anywhere near where I needed to be, leaving me with a distance to still walk. It's pretty terrible if I'm honest! I started driving when I was 17 as I said, did my test a year later just before I sat the leaving cert exams and the rest is history. I consider myself to be quite a good driver, a mere 6 months after passing my test I was driving up and down to Dublin to attend college! Not a bother on me! I had 7 years driving experience when I arrived in Canada but, even with all of that under my belt, on Irish roads that are probably harder to drive on than Canadian roads, I was still absolutely bricking it to begin driving over here!
For those of you who are considering moving to Calgary, I can tell you now, you're going to need a car. Public transport here is, ok... Born and raised Calgarians seem to hate it. During the week, between the hours of 7am - 5/6pm it's pretty good, the city is largely accessible by train or bus. However, after these hours or during the weekend, the public transport is, well... sh*te for lack of a better word! During the weekend, it only runs on half an hour increments so, take for example, there does be an odd occasion where I have to be in work for 8am on a Sunday morning and, when I was using the public transport, I would have to up by 6am and out the door by 7am to be at work on time for 8am. Arising at 6am is relatively normal by Canadian standards (during the week) but, in Ireland! 6am is a struggle! What's more sickening is the distance between my apartment and where I work are a 10-15 mins drive apart! It takes 40mins - 1hour to commute!! Needless to say, I didn't last long without a car!
In Calgary, if you choose to purchase a transit pass, it must be renewed every month and it costs $100 to do so. You can use it on both the bus and train, as many times as you want during the day for that whole month which is nice. Conveniently enough, we purchased the car on June 1st just on time to save me the $100 additional charge! In total we viewed three different cars before purchasing what we have now. The first car we viewed was a Mazda, I forget the year (I think it was 1998/1999) and I forget the model but it had over 200,000km, it was manual and was over $1400 which is a crazy price in fairness for a car it's age! The car itself was in ok shape, it made a pretty loud and uncomfortable sound when running which we thought may have been the timing belt? The car as I said was manual and I can drive stick, that's not the issue, in fact I had never driven an automatic! However, given the way that Canadians drive, they drive at much faster speeds, tend to change lanes very erratically and they have much larger roads (3,4, even 5 lane highways). I just thought until I adjust to driving here it would be wiser to drive automatic. With the Nissan I felt it was overpriced so, the chances of me getting it down to anywhere near $1000 to what I felt the car was worth was slim so, needles to say, we walked away from that one.
The second car we viewed was a 2003 Nissan Sentra also with over 200,00km and it was also manual. This car was in acceptable condition for its age and was at a far more reasonable price, asking was $1200. It drove well and ran well for the most part but, upon checking the engine we noticed that the oil was spitting quite badly. I didn't feel overly pushed about this one and neither did the seller. They had another person waiting to view the car and I got the impression they had it already sold to the individual as they knew them personally. Again, walked away from this opportunity.
The third car we viewed was the one we ended up going with. 2002 Chevrolet cavalier, automatic but it did have over 300,000km which was a concern. Out of all the cars that we test drove, this one I had the best feeling about. Similar to every other car I've ever owned it was black with two doors, I took it as a sign. It ran well, was at a good asking price which would make it easier for me when it came to getting myself insured. In the end, we offered $1000 for the car which was accepted! Got myself insured on June first so, as of right now I've been on the road for two weeks!
Granted, I'm still adjusting to driving here, all I've managed is between my apartment and where I work which are only a 10-15 min drive apart but, so far I've managed fine! I thought I would have difficulty driving on the other side of the road and the other side of the car but, to my surprise I have had no issues! I still have quite a bit to learn! There's a major highway here by the name of "Deerfoot" and I'm very apprehensive to drive on it. It has a history of accidents, no one does the speed limit! If I ever want to drive to Edmonton or even out to Crossiron Millls the outlet mall here in Calgary which is a 30 minute drive on Deerfoot but, we'll work up to it!
My advice to those of you hoping to drive over here would be the same advice you would tell yourself in Ireland. Shop around, your first car here will be a heap, the same as it would be at home. The mileage on it will be huge, Canadians do a hell of a lot more driving over here because flying within the continent is SO expensive they have no choice! Petrol is way cheaper! For those of you looking for insurance in Calgary, Irish people can have difficulty getting insured for the first time in Canada. I definitely recommend you contact "the insurance place" and ask for Julie. She's a legend! Because the car is over 12 years old, legally in Alberta you can be required to have the car serviced and checked before you'll be granted insurance. Depending on the car and mechanic you get stuck with who might chance their arm and declare you need a new this, that and the other, having it checked could set you back up to $1000?! "Intact" insurance don't require you to get your car checked for 20 years!!!
This is really interesting article and I found really useful information here.
ReplyDeleteThank you!You can find really good apartaments in Canada believe me!