Resist the urge to open a guide or check the map for the first hour. The city will tell you more than any list of recommendations if you let it. The first two hours are not for sightseeing. They are for calibration.

Step One: Walk Without a Destination (20 Minutes)

Leave the accommodation and walk in any direction that looks inhabited. Not towards the main sight. Not to the restaurant you've pre-selected. Just into the city. The first thing you notice is pace: does this city move quickly or slowly? London pace, Lisbon pace, these are different things and you feel them within five minutes. You also notice density: is this city tight and vertical, or spread and low?

Don't stop. Don't photograph yet. Just walk and register.

Step Two: Find a Café and Sit (30 Minutes)

Not a tourist café. The one with the locals in it, which you can find by walking away from the main square for two or three minutes. Sit at a window or on the pavement. Order something. Watch who is there and what they're doing.

This step is about the social texture of the city. Are people on their phones or talking to each other? Are they eating alone or in groups? Is the café fast and functional or slow and social? These things tell you something about the city's internal rhythm that no travel article captures.

Step Three: One More Block in Any Direction (10 Minutes)

Get up and walk one block beyond where you feel comfortable. Not into danger, but beyond the familiar-feeling zone you've already established. This is where you find the market you didn't know about, the street that's more interesting than the one in the guide, the neighbourhood that becomes your reference point for the whole trip.

What You Know After Two Hours

By this point you have registered: the density and pace of the city, the social character of its cafés, the noise level and general atmosphere, whether it feels easy or hard to be a stranger in it. You haven't seen a single sight. You have, however, introduced yourself to the city and let the city introduce itself to you. Every decision for the rest of the trip is made from that foundation rather than from a list assembled by someone who visited three years ago.

The city has introduced itself. Now you can start planning.