Two weeks in South Korea

For those who don't know about it, CPEM is the Conference on Precise Electromagnetic Measurements. It is hold every two years, sometimes in the States, sometimes somewhere around the world. It's an important meeting for people working in the measurements field, and particularly interesting for us as one of the main topics is about fundamental constants. As I am directly involved in an experiment aimed at determining the molar-Planck constant NAh, I had to participate too, and... Guys, this was a very nice experience, as the 2010 CPEM was in South Korea!

It was the first time, for me, for such a long travel... It was even the first time I was going outside of Europe, as I had only been in France, Ireland and Poland before.
The conference was lasting just a few days, but I decided to leave a bit before, such that I could travel around the country for sightseeing. A little of internet searching, to find the best spots, and a lot of excitement (and even a bit of fear, as I was leaving alone, and I would have met my colleagues only once at the conference place, on the second week).

I soon found out that Jeju, the island off the southern coast, was considered as one of the best places not only of Korea, but eventually worldwide, so my choice went for it, given my limited amount of time.

On June 6th, I left early in the morning from Grenoble (it was around 6 AM when I took the bus to the Lyon airport... damn!), then took the air plane from Lyon to Paris, where I had my coincidence for my very first intercontinental flight.
Flying on a Boeing 777 is a real pleasure: you've got your own monitor, where you can watch movies, documentaries, and much more.
The flight lasted around 10h, which is quite a lot for a direct flight. By the way, time will pass quite fast: you have some sleep, you're offered with food, and if you're lucky you can even find some interesting people to talk with.

The final destination of the flight was Incheon International Airport, but when I got there, after Passport check and custom controls, I had to move to Gimpo Airport, where I had my last flight to Jeju-do. In Gimpo, they've been so kind to allow me to get on the earlier flight, and they even offered me first class comfort (still I don't see why, but would you ever complain about that?).

When I finally arrived to Jeju, I took the final bus to my first final destination: Ilchulbong.

I got there late in the afternoon, one day after my leaving from home. That's where my real adventure started!

In the next posts I will tell you about my journey through the Jeju Island, and then through the rest of Korea.
Stay tuned!