Portugal

The information that can be useful for your travel.

Cities Portugal  
Country information country code: PT
continent: Europe
capital: Lisbon
languages: Portuguese

EU membership: yes
NATO membership: yes

GSM: 900/1800/3G
GPS: 39 30 N, 8 00 W
electricity: 230V/50Hz

currency:
European Union Euro: EUR
1EUR = 1.2656 USD


phone code: +351-21

Travel advices and warnings Portugal
Tourism If one word could sum up a visit to Portugal, it would be romance. Because wherever you stay in the country, you’ll be sure to enjoy a truly romantic stay.
First of all, there’s the sea. The Portuguese have enjoyed a long love affair with the ocean. After all, it was this that allowed Portuguese explorers to embark on their famous Discoveries. But it also conjures feelings of nostalgia, loss, the sorrow of unrequited love, and the distinctly Portuguese feeling of saudade.
Climate The climate in Portugal varies considerably from one region to another and is influenced by the relief, latitude and proximity to the sea, which offers mild winters, especially in the Algarve.
In the Porto e Norte area and Beiras region, particularly inland, nearer Spain, the winters are colder, although the temperatures are still mild when compared to the rest of Europe. There is some snowfall. It occurs most in the Serra da Estrela mountains, where we find the highest point in mainland Portugal (1, 991 m) and where it is sometimes possible to ski.
Cuisine Portuguese cuisine is characterised by rich, filling and full-flavored dishes and is closely related to Mediterranean cuisine. The influence of Portugal's former colonial possessions is also notable, especially in the wide variety of spices used. These spices include piri piri (small, fiery chili peppers) and black pepper, as well as cinnamon, vanilla and saffron. Olive oil is one of the bases of Portuguese cuisine both for cooking and flavouring meals. Garlic is widely used, as are herbs such as coriander and parsley. Breakfast is traditionally just coffee and a bread roll with butter, jam, cheese or ham. Lunch, often lasting over an hour is served between noon and 2 o'clock or between 1 and 3 o'clock, and dinner is generally served late, around or after 8 o'clock. There are three main courses, lunch and dinner usually include soup. A common soup is caldo verde with potato, shredded kale, and chunks of chouriço sausage. Among fish recipes, bacalhau (cod) dishes are pervasive. The most typical desserts are rice pudding (decorated with cinnamon) and caramel custard, but they also often include a variety of cheeses. The most common varieties are made from sheep or goat's milk, and include the queijo da serra from the region of Serra da Estrela. A popular pastry is the pastel de nata, a small custard tart sprinkled with cinnamon.
Language Portuguese ( português (help·info) or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that arose in ancient Galicia, [3][4][5] nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal, and spread, with the Reconquista, to Southern Portugal and with the Portuguese discoveries to Brazil, Africa and other parts of the world. It is an official language of the European Union, the Organisation of American States, the African Union, and Lusophone countries. It has around 272. 9 million speakers making it the fifth-most spoken language in the world. Portuguese is the third-most spoken language in the Western Hemisphere, and the most spoken in the Southern Hemisphere.
Culture The culture of Portugal is the result of a complex flow of different civilizations during the past Millennia. From prehistoric cultures, to its Pre-Roman civilizations (such as the Lusitanians, the Gallaeci, the Celtici, and the Cynetes, amongst others), passing through its contacts with the Phoenician-Carthaginian world, the Roman period (see Hispania, Lusitania and Gallaecia), the Germanic invasions and consequent settlement of the Suevi and Buri (see Suebic Kingdom of Galicia) and the Visigoth (see Visigothic Kingdom), and, finally, the Moorish Umayyad invasion of Hispania and the subsequent Reconquista, all have made an imprint on the country's culture and history.
Costs The cost of living in Portugal is moving up to par with other European nations since it joined the European Union in 1986. Portugal is considered a developed country that scores high on the Human Development Index. Prices of goods have gone up but salaries of people also made up for the constant inflation.
Currency The official Portugal Currency, which was once Escudo, has been totally replaced by Euro since 2002. Euro is the official currency of some 13 European Union countries since it had been introduced and circulated in 1st January 2002.

Lisbon, Portugal

Thursday 28, March

From wikipedia about Portugal

Portugal is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.

The land within the borders of today's Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi and the Visigoths, in the 8th century the lands were conquered by Moors. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom, claiming to be the oldest European nation-state. Brian Jenkins, Spyros A. Sofos,, p. 145 Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-12313-5

In the 15th and 16th centuries, as the result of pioneering the Age of Discovery, Portugal expanded western influence and established a global empire that included possessions in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers. The Portuguese Empire was the first global empire in history, Melvin Eugene Page, Penny M. Sonnenburg, p. 481 and also the longest lived of the European colonial empires. However, the country's international status was greatly reduced during the 19th century, especially following the independence of Brazil, its largest colony.

After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the unstable Portuguese First Republic was established being then superseded by the "Estado Novo" dictatorship. Democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974, and Portugal's last overseas provinces became independent (most prominently Angola and Mozambique); the last overseas territory, Macau, was ceded to China in 1999.

Portugal is a developed country with an advanced and high-income economy, with a very high Human Development Index. It has the world's 19th-highest quality-of-life, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, and it is one of the world's most globalized and peaceful nations. It is a member of the European Union and the United Nations, as well as a founding member of the Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, OECD, NATO, Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the Eurozone.
Description above from the Wikipedia, licensed under CC-BY-SA full list of contributors here.
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Portugal, Lisbon