25 February 2015

#818 Portugal


More about Portugal, see received postcard #796.

About some facts written on the postcard:

Mariza, born Marisa dos Reis Nunes (16 December 1973, Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique), is a popular fado singer.

Mariza was born to a Portuguese father and a mother of partial African heritage. At age three, her family moved to Metropolitan Portugal, and she was raised in Lisbon's historic quarters of Mouraria and Alfama. While very young she began singing in a wide variety of musical styles, including gospel, soul and jazz. Her father strongly encouraged her to adopt fado; he felt that participating in the traditional music would grant her greater acceptance in the Portuguese community. Mariza has sold over 1,000,000 records worldwide.

Dom Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, (c. 1460s – 23 December 1524) was a Portuguese explorer. He was the first European to reach India by sea, linking Europe and Asia for the first time by ocean route, as well as the Atlantic and the Indian oceans entirely and definitively, and in this way, the West and the Orient. This was accomplished on his first voyage to India (1497 – 1499).

 Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães; c. 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies that resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, GOIH, known as Cristiano Ronaldo (born 5 February 1985), is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Real Madrid C.F. and is the captain for the Portugal national team.

Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in Macau (China), Equatorial Guinea and East Timor. As the result of expansion during colonial times, Portuguese speakers are also found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India, in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka and in Malacca in Malaysia.

With approximately 215 to 220 million native speakers and 260 million total speakers, Portuguese is usually listed as the fifth most spoken language in the world, the third most spoken European language and the major language of the Southern Hemisphere. It is also the most spoken language in South America and the second most spoken in Latin America, after Spanish, as well as an official language of the European Union and Mercosul.

The Rooster of Barcelos (Portuguese, "Galo de Barcelos") is one of the most common emblems of Portugal.

The Vasco da Gama Bridge (Portuguese: Ponte Vasco da Gama) is a cable-stayed bridge flanked by viaducts and rangeviews that spans the Tagus River in Parque das Nações in Lisbon, capital of Portugal. It is the longest bridge in Europe (including viaducts), with a total length of 17.2 kilometres (10.7 mi)), including 0.8 kilometres (0.50 mi) for the main bridge, 11.5 kilometres (7.1 mi) in viaducts, and 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) in dedicated access roads. Its purpose is to alleviate the congestion on Lisbon's other bridge (25 de Abril Bridge), and to join previously unconnected motorways radiating from Lisbon.



Thank you, Madalena !
 
Sent on: February 18, 2015
Received on: February 25, 2015

1 comment:

Kinga On Tour said...

I love Greetings from ... series! :)
But I have only Greetings from Poland in my collection ;/