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arrival-sequence-20250930
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Observation Log: Arrival in Belgrade
OS:B Core Functions - Initial System Boot
"""

class ArrivalSequence:
    def __init__(self):
        self.location = "Beranska Ul, Belgrade"
        self.timestamp = "2025-09-30T16:30:00+02:00"
        self.coordinates = "44.75885° N, 20.48246° E"
    
    def observe(self):
        return """
Slovakia, then Hungary, then
the signs switch to Cyrillic
and I realise
I can't read anything anymore

Not the street names
not the shop fronts
not even the graffiti

This is what I wanted:
complete illegibility
the city refusing
to translate itself for me.

The hills weren't on the map
I mean they were but
flat lines don't communicate verticality
don't tell you
that your legs will burn
climbing from the bus stop
to the apartment

Green everywhere
between the concrete
trees I don't recognise
growing through cracks in
the socialist architecture

A kid at the traffic light
maybe eight years old
tapping on car windows
and the drivers already know
already have their faces arranged
in whatever expression means
no without cruelty.

Someone going through the bins
outside my building
methodically, not desperately
like this is just part of
the city's sorting algorithm

The tram that rattles past
looks older than me
sounds like it's held together by
collective agreement
rather than engineering

Two women shouting
at each other near the pijaca
I don't know if they're fighting
or just communicating
at Belgrade volume

None of this was in
the travel videos I didn't watch
None of this fits
the sanitised version
of what a European city
is supposed to be

And I love it
This honest, chaotic,
unperforming thing
that doesn't care
if I understand it yet.
        """

if __name__ == "__main__":
    observation = ArrivalSequence()
    print(observation.observe())
    print(f"\n# Logged: {observation.timestamp}")
    print(f"# Location: {observation.location}")
    print(f"# Coordinates: {observation.coordinates}")
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