After a short stop in the hotel, our first day in Amsterdam began at Centraal Station with a canal tour across the city. As the boat tore through the rivers, the history of the city revealed itself in the tilted, brick structures. Located next to the ocean, the city has served as a trade port for centuries which is reflected in the variety of cultures residing in the area. The buildings themselves are made of brick after the wooden ones of the medieval period burnt down in large-scale fires, and some are even tilted from the sinking, watery foundation. Perhaps the most interesting fact to me was how hooks extended from many buildings in order to lift furniture up since the staircases were built narrow to circumnavigate the “width tax.” Just one look revealed so much about this place and how it’s been influenced by its people and circumstances. 

After the canal tour, we visited Cacao & Spice, a locally-run chocolate shop sourcing ethically-made chocolate from countries across the world. The shop began as an initiative to revamp the red light district by implementing new, locally-owned businesses in the area. The couple running the shop made it their mission to sell chocolate sustainability—to them, this meant selling chocolate from sources that grew their cacao locally and didn’t engage with the child labor and deforestation that plagues the commercial cacao industry. 

The next day, we did a scavenger hunt and visited the House of Denim, a denim workshop. Running around the city of Amsterdam, I took notice of the variety of foods represented from Indonesian to Surinamese and even Japanese and American. It was cool to see how an old city such as Amsterdam had been influenced over the years from colonialism and globalism. In the House of Denim, we learnt how their shop was taking steps to ensure sustainability: using felt instead of cotton due to the lower water consumption; using water-efficient machinery to wash the denim; ensuring ethical labor; and using machinery to cut and fade jeans in order to keep workers safe.

Overall, it was interesting to see from a historical perspective how the world we currently live in is shaped by the events of our past and how we are continuing to shape it by our actions today. While the people of the past may have built their buildings narrow to avoid paying a tax, people of today have the choice of finding the cheapest route, the most ethical route, or something in between.