the morning of july 22, 2011, i was waking up in my motel room in portland, or. i was on a solo road trip (more about that later).
fortunately, there was internet at the motel, so i did what every person (literally every person these days.) does when they go on the internet - check facebook.
my friend pablo had sent me a message, asking if my family was ok after the bombing in norway.
i hadn't the slightest idea what he was talking about, so i went to vg.no to check out what norway itself had to report.
i was shocked.
the little time i had before checkout was spent soaking up all the horrible information i could muster. what i gathered was that there was a bomb that had gone off in oslo, and i think, by that point, information about the shooting at utøya had started coming in. but it was only a little after 7 pm norway time. so the events were still unexplainable.
it felt so unreal. and of course my first though was that it was a terrorist attack. (there was no information online to indicate anything either way.)
this does not happen in safe, little norway.
then, as i got back on the road that day, more news was revealed, now focused mostly on the shootings, which was relayed to me by phone from my friend, aaron.
i couldn't believe it.
arriving in seattle, i spent most of the night reading everything i could online. i was in disbelief. i cried. i felt terrified.
i was in mourning.
the next few days, still on my trip, and as i came home, i couldn't stop reading. i felt so far away from my homeland.
as the entire country of norway came together to mourn for those lost, and fight hatred with love and togetherness, i did so in my heart.
i have been known to criticize, if you will, norwegians for their unfriendliness and cold privacy, but seeing pictures of strangers hugging on the streets, which were filled with roses from all the country's flowershops, warmed my heart.
i was a proud norwegian.
the monster behind these gruesome acts deserves little mention here. what is important is that we take our country back, and take care of each other like never before.
which i think will happen. these horrendous events has proven that we have great leaders that deeply and truly cares about our country's citizens and about democracy.
i am a proud norwegian.
i still mourn for those affected by this terrible tragedy, and i still pray.
may we never forget.
It was very surreal Lene. Still hard to grasp. I've now paid visits (many) to Oslo to see how the bomb affected the different buildings.
ReplyDeleteI've even taken a little roadtrip up to "the Island". It lay there soaking up the sun. Kind of hard to imagine the horrible events that took place.