We attended a public memorial service in the city this evening
http://www.vg.no/nyh...?artid=10080775 with an estimated 150,000 people in attendance. Most people were holding a rose and the feeling of support, empathy, sadness and solidarity was incredible.
It was extremely moving with hundreds of people crying openly and uncontrollably.
There were speeches by the crown prince, the mayor of Oslo and the prime minister, who received a massive cheer (and whose actions and words have been spectacularly excellent since the double tragedy on Friday.
Afterwards, we went to the hospital to visit Eivind (my first time to actually see him) who is making steady progress but has a very long way to go to full fitness.
The amazing thing is that he is alive! He was only 20-30 metres away from the car when it exploded (which was estimated to be about 600 kg and caused a massive crater in the ground). Several bodies were lying close to him and these people had died immediately.
A passer-by rushed to him almost immediately after the explosion and said (in translation) 'Fukking' hell, what the fukk do I do now?'
Eivind told him to take his (Eivind's) clothes out of his holdall and use them as a tourniquet (he was later a bit upset that his Abercrombie & Fitch clothes were ruined) but this probably saved his life as he was spouting blood from 2-3 big wounds.
The doctor later asked him if he had any First Aid knowledge and he replied 'Only from watching war and action films'!
Good on ya, Eivind, come on, mate!
Unfortunately my workmate (whose girlfriend was killed in the blast) is having a really rough time, and I'm not sure he can cope!
