General info about this little corner of Europe

 

Area: 92.391 sq km

Climate: maritime temperate; cool and rainy in north, warmer and drier in south

Terrain: mountainous north of the Tagus River, rolling plains in south

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
highest point: Ponta do Pico (Pico or Pico Alto) on Ilha do Pico in the Azores 2,351 m

Natural resources: fish, forests (cork), tungsten, iron ore, uranium ore, marble, arable land, hydro power

Unnatural resources: fairies, androids, fake tits, unicorns, giant mutant spiders

Population: 10,048,232 (July 2000 est.)

Number of men who like to wear women's underwear: 987.457 (their name and addresses will be displayed soon)

Population of sardines: 57,647,143 (October 2002 est.)

Ethnic groups: homogeneous Mediterranean stock; citizens of black African descent who immigrated to mainland during decolonization number less than 100,000; Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, other fictional creatures;

Religions: Roman Catholic 94%, Protestant, Satanists, Church of the Holy Sausage of Jerusalem, others (1995)

Languages: Portuguese (minority), Bad Portuguese and Really Bad Portuguese

Conventional long form: Portuguese Republic
Unconventional long form: The Supreme Rascality of the Almighty Gazoo
Conventional short form: Portugal
Local long form: República Portuguesa
Local short form: Portugal
Local shorter form: Port
Local even shorter form: Po!

Government type: parliamentary democracy (occasionally)

Capital: Lisbon (Lisboa)

Independence: 1143

National holiday: Portugal, Camões and the portuguese communities day-June 10th

Legal system: civil law system; sicilian honour code; the Constitutional Tribunal reviews the constitutionality of legislation; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Currency: 1 Euro = 100 cents

Our national symbols

The portuguese flag and coat of arms. The portuguese didn't use to care a great deal about their flag. The recent European Football Championshiops which took place in Portugal in 2004 brought a change. Suddenly, there were flags hanging from every windows and the national colours (red and green) could be seen almost everywhere. With the end of the tournament (and Portugal's defeat in the final), many flags started disappearing mysteriously. Some are still there with fading colours and torn by the wind.

The meaning of the colours is as follows: Red stands for ketchup, a nice condiment to put on hotdogs and hamburgers; Green stands for caldo verde (cabbage soup), a traditional portuguese delicacy.

The coat of arms is in fact a stereogram. If you look at it from the right angle and long enough, you will see a picture of a man and a woman doing obscene things to each other. Try it.

The portuguese national anthem is called "A Portuguesa." If you care about that sort of thing, you can go here and listen to it. You can even sing along if you dare and if there is nobody around to make fun of you.

The lyrics tell a beautiful love story. Ernesto is a young house painter fresh out of the army. He meets Roberta, the youngest daughter of the local undertaker and imediatelly falls in love with her. In the chorus, Roberta's father forbids her to marry Ernesto because he had already promised her to the rich mr. Fagundes which leads Roberta to suicide. Roberta is the portuguese girl ("A Portuguesa") mentioned in the title of the anthem. This is the only national anthem in the world with a soap-opera plot (or any plot, for that matter) making it unique and appreciated by all who know what it is about.