Yesterday (although it feels like today), I woke up at 5:30 AM on Saturday to meet outside of Benedum and head to the airport. I think it’s been about 31 hours since then and I have not slept at all. We had a layover in Boston and arrived in the Netherlands at about 5:30 AM on Sunday, with a full day ahead of us. First, we took public transportation to our hotel and dropped our luggage off, before exploring some of the area surrounding it. A nearby residential neighborhood we explored is pictured below. It surprised me how much greenery was incorporated into the neighborhood, despite being within the city.
Next, we went back to the hotel and ate breakfast. After this, we left to go on a canal cruise. The cruise was very informative, and we learned about how the Dutch used to pay taxes based on the width of their houses, which is why many of the houses are very tall and thin. However, this also led to a problem: residents were unable to move furniture in due to their narrow staircases. To fix this, the Dutch ingeniously used a hook system to pull furniture and other types of goods up into their homes.
Post-canal tour, we were given some free time and the opportunity to get lunch. Some friends and I wandered around the streets of Amsterdam, but unfortunately it started raining very hard, and there were many puddles in the stone street. We occasionally went into interesting-looking stores to take shelter from the rain, and visited a museum. For lunch, we decided to go to look for some well-known truffle and parmesan french fries, which turned out to be very good.
When the group reconvened, we were divided into two sections–one who would do a walking tour and then a chocolate tasting session, and one who would do the activities in the opposite order. My group did the walking tour first. We learned about the activism that has taken place in Amsterdam, from helping to save babies from the Holocaust to protecting queer couples in bars. We also learned about how Amsterdam combated their opioid crisis, by providing care instead of criminalization. In addition, we saw many pretty views of streets and canals.
After the tour, we visited the chocolate store, which was actually run by the wife of the walking tour guide, Salomé. Here, we learned about how the flavor of chocolate is based on the cacao tree, and I was surprised at how well the flavor profile matched exactly what she described. Here, I also learned about how much more sustainable and tasty it is to grow chocolate on polycultural farms, as opposed to monocultural ones. Many farmers in Africa are pushed to plant only the cacao plant in order to maximize profit and harvest. However, cacao plants actually need shade, and they also taste best when grown fully into healthy trees, rather than being harvested prematurely. Salomé’s chocolate comes only from cacao that has been expertly grown, with the use of shade trees and proper time to mature. The polycultural growing method is also much more sustainable and better for the environment. It increases the quality and fertility of the soil, as well as the resilience of the farm ecosystem.
Finally, we went back to the hotel and prepared to go to dinner. We walked about 5 minutes to the restaurant and ate a family style meal, including bread, vegetables, roasted potatoes, french fries, risotto, and chicken.