Travel To or Through Scandinavia and Beyond

This post is about a trip I took to visit my cousins in Norway. It was a great trip and we had no trouble getting there, however getting back was a different story.

The problem lies in how easy we have it in the USA. We get to bring a checked bag and carry-on for free on many domestic flights and add another checked bag for most flights abroad. So I took a carry-on, a checked bag, and a backpack. I didn't even take the extra free checked bag! As I said, no problem getting from US through Minneapolis and Amsterdam to Kristiansand, Norway.

 After 2 weeks of bliss in my "Ancestral Homeland", I had unloaded my US loot and was reloaded with Norge loot, still with only 1 checked, 1 carry on and 1 backpack. 

In the US, we are only limited by the weight of our checked bag(s) and the number of checked and carry-on bags. Not so in Norway (and most definitely other Scandinavian and European countries). In Norway with KLM, they not only weigh your checked bag, but also your carry-on and personal item "as a whole"! So, checked bag was easily under the 50lb limit, but when you add the carry on and backpack I had, boom, you get a giggling ticket taker motioning to the "over the limit" window (not really what it was called, but basically what it was). Since we were early and the first ones there, we had to wait for someone to open, then to get ahold of someone to get their credit card machine to work. Thank God we were early.

With my wallet $100 lighter, and an hour dealing with  Ms "It's for passenger safety" for over an hour, we were released to the outer waiting area. They load somewhat like most airlines in the US, but you are required to stand in your "zone" line as soon as you are released to the final waiting area. This is right after your passport and ticket are checked for the last time, and depending where you are, could be an hour or longer.

So be warned, just because your two 50 lb checked bags, carry-on, and your backpack or purse or whatever get a free ride out of the good ole USA, doesn't mean they'll come back for free.

One more note: if you saved up all of your receipts for items over the minimum purchase amount from stores and were planning on getting a refund for the value added taxes at the airport, consider that the hours of the office that processes said taxes are most likely regular government hours (no early mornings, late evenings or weekends). All is not lost though. Look for my next post on applying for VAT refund from home.

Continuing the Online Privacy Search and Destroy

So I have most of my personal information removed from the public (I think). But Google and TruePeopleSearch have one nagging thing that continues to haunt. If I search my name from Google and click the link listed for TruePeopleSearch, all of my current and past info shows up right there in one page. So the only way I see to get it removed is by scrolling to the bottom of the page and using the "contact us" link. Even though I have already requested to opt out, my info doesn't come up when I search directly from the TruePeopleSearch site and I am required to paste a link to the page I'm questioning, the email answer requests that I go to the "removal" page. So I have replied to their answer with the above info and will let you know how far I get.
In the mean time, I have discovered a new way to search deaper for someone in TruePeopleSearch. So the URL format for TruePeopleSearch that comes up in google is:
  https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/find/{last name}/{first name}/area/{2 letter initials for state} . Just replace words in brackets with last name, first name and the state the person you're looking for lives or has lived in.

Personal Online Security

Recently, I have been looking in to protecting my privacy online. I started with google searching my name. Tons of stuff comes up, a lot of which identified me as ME. There are tons of sites that help find information on you and show how to remove it from specific sites. Here is a good article to start with "How to opt out of the most popular people search sites". After having followed this and several others, I recently decided to google myself again. Up comes BeenVerified. It's not so easy because you can't just search their regular page for yourself. You have to go to their "opt out" page and search for yourself there. Be aware that if your name comes up in several different states, you will have to remove them too. However, you wont be able to use your same email address. If you don't have more than one email address, sign up for others in order to remove all of your own names in whatever state you may have lived in.

Another issue that came up was Linked in. Even though you would think that your information would only come up for linked in community members, there it was in google search. To remove linkedin search information from a general google search:
1. sign in to linkedin and click on the "Me" dropdown in the top ribbon, then "Settings and Privacy" under the "Account" section.

2. Under Privacy, click on the "Change" link on the right of "Edit your public profile".

3. In the right column, scroll down until you see the "Edit Visibility Section". If the "Your profile's public visibility" button is "On", click it to turn it "Off". Note that if you don't mind showing some of your details to the public, there are specific buttons you can click on to either show or not show those details if you leave the main public profile button turned on.