Oh my God!!!Working at my first job, it was in a Clothing Shop close to The Hilton Hotel in Sydney. When it got bombed, I was sent into clean up the shopfront!
The smell was something I have never forgotten, all these years on .........
How awful for you.
You're right. The smell of blood is confronting.
I was training some first year paramedic students a couple of months ago, and I asked the standard "what made you choose this profession" and one said "because I love the sight of blood", my reply "while the sight of it as you watch your horror movie might be okay, when you add the smell, the feel, and the absolute pain and terror radiating from your patient, it's no where near as great as you think..."
What a fuckhead.