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A piece of Portugal Goa - India

india-goa

Who has seen Goa need not see Lisbon . The good news is that those who have not seen is always on time. Fifty years after the departure of Portugal in India, there are brands that remain.

Goa is the smallest state of India. With less than four thousand square kilometers, is a small drop of tea in a country so vast that it takes the nickname of the subcontinent. More than three million square kilometers of India could easily stifle Goa, was not the fact that this is one of the richest states in the country. The GDP per capita is frankly above the national average, the level of education and also number of resorts that each year attracts visitors from around the world as well.

Fifty years after the end of the Portuguese State of India, Goa continues to arouse a sense of nostalgia that is both real as the memories of school lessons. It had begun with Afonso de Albuquerque in November 1510. Ended with the troops of the Indian Union in December 1961. The military action military deserved a condemnation of the United Nations and Portugal did not recognize the occupation in April 1974, after the Carnation Revolution, but the years have brought peace with the past, which replaced the outdated colonial nostalgia.

All that now seems distant, but the fact is that there is no land in Goa that Portuguese is not that impressed with the street names in the language Saramago and Pessoa, and of course with the architectural and cultural heritage that is now a symbol of our presence in the east. UNESCO has recognized that and why some of these monuments inscribed on the list of World Heritage - are not only Portuguese, are no longer just Goans or Indians, are all the world.

Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte, Basilica of Bom Jesus (where lie the relics of St. Francis Xavier), Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Panaji), Fort Aguada, Church of St Cajetan, Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Neighborhood in Fontainhas, etc.. The names come and go. The face also. For the guys do not identify themselves, but some of those people call themselves Fernandes, Faria and Pereira Silva. Few speak Portuguese, but it is not strange to hear a "good afternoon" and launched the national tourist distracted.

But there's more, many more reasons to point to Goa. Starting with the beaches. One more exclusive, other more popular and known as the famous Calangute. These were the good climate and energy that attracted hippies in the 1970s. They settled in communities, have become part of the scenery. In the 1990s came the yuppies. Holiday. In the last decade has come more people. Not just the wealthy, able to pay the five-star resorts have opened along the Arabian Sea, but also the visitor "common", which chooses the most hotels or inns that regard but also gained space and clientele.

In the background, either in study visit accompanied by the old school manual or Hawaiian and swimwear to enjoy the beaches, Goa continues to be, fifty years later, a small piece of Portugal away from Europe .

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