At the moment, we are renting in a city centre condo. Very convenient and some other thoughts...
Well, we do love the City centre of Calgary and it's nice and lively. It's convenient and has many facilities, and most of the big company offices are located there, especially those related to finance and banking.
It's not very different from HK actually. The condos in downtown are high rises and have great views. They are well guarded and all the other tenants are very nice too. We do not see them very often but when we do, we enjoy the occasional chat. And they are always very helpful to hold the door for you if you have 15 grocery bags on your arms 👏.
Well, our first winter here is regularly at sub zero and it's not one for going out and looking around or getting food/groceries. It definitely beats the Scottish cold and is comparable to a Finnish winter around lake Inari, for that matter.
Condo living is nice though and although we go to the supermarket ourselves to do the groceries, on occasions, we do miss the odd produce and have to order online. And for this, we use Instacart.ca or the supermarket's website for online delivery. They are very good to ship within 1 day and the delivery fee is acceptable (for the delivery person making the trip and braving the elements on your behalf). As such, we are happy to leave great reviews for these nice people helping us out.
One downside though (other than thin walls and not being able to see the neighbors and chat to them regularly) is the access to the building being very secure (or just plain difficult) for delivery people to drop things by. So, for most delivery people, they will phone you in case they cannot enter the building. For others, eg Purolator or Fedex, they are very happy to drop by another day... well, needless to say a phone call to check that you are able to receive your shipment would save the effort to come back and reduce the administrative work to re-deliver.
Other than that, it's a nice area and convenient, but we still prefer a suburban neighborhood with many parks and trees. Around here, we need to walk around 15 mins to go to Sunalta to find a playground. That goes with the saying that downtown is more relevant to young professionals seeking a vibrant city life, while suburban and rural neighborhoods are more attuned to families where you really want the kids to sprawl out and knock themselves silly at the playgrounds 🙌.
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