Day 4 (12 February 2014) in Vienna, Austria

I woke up at about 7:00am to get myself ready to kick off my long journey to home. I took a taxi from my hotel to the airport. Although we had a little disagreement at the end, my taxi driver happened to be from southern part of Nigeria. He briefed me about his countries politics. Although one of my best friends is from Nigeria and updates me about Nigerian politics quite often, I was listening to this cub driver as if I knew nothing about Nigeria. He said he has been in Austria for 26 years. O! ya! The disagreement, well I happened to have very limited cash in my pocket and I offered to pay with my credit card but for some reason he did not like that and insisted that I’ve to find cash from somewhere otherwise he did not have credit card machine.  I knew he has the machine because I did pay with my credit card when I rode similar cub last Sunday but I did not want to spend my time with him, so I went inside the airport and withdraw cash from the ATM and gave it to him.
Here I’m sitting at airport VIP lounge, waiting for my flight to Heathrow. 

Vienna airport swamped in the rainy weather!

I made it to Heathrow airport. I'm sitting at the airport VIP lounge, waiting for my connection flight which departs in an hour and half.  From the picture below, you can tell how the weather in London looks like.   

 Ethiopian airline parked here at Heathrow.

Finally, I made it home safely and on time and reunited with my family. Interesting trip and looking forward to go back.

Day 3 (11 February 2014) in Vienna, Austria

Yea! No jet lag today either. Ops! My talk is this morning and I have to get ready for it. As usual we took a train to the center. This time we knew where to go. Since we arrived at the center about 30min earlier, we had time to go around and saw different interesting treasures, including the Nobel peace prize medal given to Mr Kofi Annan in 2001 and to Dr Mohammed ElBaradei in 2005. The former was the secretary general of the UN from 1997 – 2006 and the latter served as director general of IAEA from 1997-2009. BTW, one of the buildings, where Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) is located, is named after Mr Kofi Annan as shown below.  My talk went out successful. The meetings got concluded at 6:00pm. Dr Sharafat Gadimova from OOSA offered us (a small group of the US contingent) a tour to the UN facility which she did it graciously. I have to mention it here, this tour was scheduled for tomorrow, but the She did today just for me as I’ll head off back home tomorrow morning, hopping I’ll make it before the storm hit. At the end of our tour the same group went for dinner across the street. The restaurant was so fancy and the food was so delicious. We had so happy and interesting evening. Finally we took the train back to our hotel, and here I’m ready to head back home tomorrow.

 With Dr ElBaradei's Nobel peace prize medal

 One of the fancy meeting venue at the center!

 Interesting! One of the picture here is from the workshop that I co-organize in Addis Ababa in 2007

 With one of the rockets at the OOSA's exhibition center!

 Tope view of the entire UN center in Vienna!

This was the group that toured the UN facility!

Day 2 (10 February 2014) in Vienna, Austria

I had a wonderful sleep and fortunately no jet lag this time. So happy! Yes! In deed I woke up so fresh and made myself ready to head off to the Vienna UN center, where the famous IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) is located. I joined by colleagues from BC and MIT and took a train to UN center. A train ticket, which is valid for 48 hours, costs 12.50 Euro. The train is so convenient and it took us right outside the UN center. Unlike other meetings, this one required a formal dressing as you can see me in the figure below with one of my colleague from MIT (Dr Anthea Coster). We passed through the security and started figuring out where our meeting room will be which we successfully located it out of the complicated UN building. Since this meeting is so international and by invitation only, the number of participants are not that many (~45 people from different countries around the world). As expected the meeting venue is so fancy and well equipped. The morning session went out successfully. Lunch time! Ya lunch, what do I want to eat (I mean what country’s food)? You can find all sort of food from different countries. Indeed it is a UN center; but no ‘Injera’, so sad :). I had vegetarian dish which was very nice. BTW, the food price at the UN center is way cheaper than other restaurants outside the center. After we concluded the first day of our meeting, a group of USA contingent went out for dinner. We went to Sky Bar, which has a bar as well as restaurant. Unlike many US bars, here in Vienna smoking inside the bar is allowed. Thus to avoid the smoking, we went to the restaurant part and have dinner. Finally, we walk back to our hotel safely.  What a successfully day in deed. See you tomorrow!

 Main entrance to the center

Partial view of the center!

 Here I'm in front of the center with Dr Anthea Coster

 This where we were wondering around to find our meeting room

 Night view of the Vienna Cathedral

Day 1 (9 February 2014) in Vienna, Austria

After an hour and half flight delay at Heathrow airport in London, I successfully made it to Vienna. Vienna international airport is not that big compared to other major European airports. Since it is my first time in Vienna, I took a taxi to my Vienna Marriot hotel where I’ll be residing for the next couple of days. I was reasonably ok and did not want to go bed instead I took a short walk around. I returned back to my hotel and sat at the lobby to check my emails. Moment after I was joined by colleague from Japan followed by other colleagues from the USA. They both came to the same meeting where I’ll part of. We then went out for dinner to one of the nearby typical Austrian restaurants. I had chicken with vegetable and rice, which was so delicious. Finally, I crushed to bed to try to be fresh for tomorrow’s meeting. 

Landing to Vienna international airport

 

  Vienna International airport

 

 On my way to the hotel!

 

 Walking around!