We are visiting Belarus, a landlocked country in Eastern Europe known for its deep forests and thousands of blue lakes. There are around 9 million people living here, and the capital is Minsk, a city that was almost entirely rebuilt with grand stone buildings after it was destroyed in a big war. The official languages are Belarusian and Russian.

Belarus is quite large, covering about 207,600 square kilometers, or 80,155 square miles. To imagine its size, it is about the same size as the state of Kansas in the U.S., or nearly six times larger than the island of Taiwan. Unlike its neighbors, Belarus is very flat, with no high mountains but plenty of mysterious marshes and woods.

The most popular sport here is Ice Hockey, and the country even has its own giant hockey arenas that look like futuristic spaceships. Their national animal is the European Bison, also called the Zubr. It is the heaviest land animal in Europe and looks like a massive, furry bull with a shaggy beard.

The flag consists of a large red stripe over a smaller green stripe, with a vertical white and red pattern on the left side that is based on traditional folk weaving designs used for centuries in Belarusian clothing.

The food is famous for one ingredient: the potato! The national dish is Dranniki, which are crispy potato pancakes served with thick sour cream. They use potatoes in almost everything, from soups to dumplings, and even desserts.

Belarus is home to the Bialowieza Forest, which is one of the last and largest remaining parts of the huge forest that used to cover all of Europe thousands of years ago. It is where those giant bison live! The country also has a very strange “Leaning Tower” in a town called Pruzhany, though it isn’t as famous as the one in Italy. In the city of Minsk, there is a National Library shaped like a rhombicuboctahedron—a giant 3D diamond made of glass that lights up at night with thousands of colorful patterns. Another interesting fact is that Belarus is often called the “Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe” because so many world-famous mobile apps and games were invented by people living there.

From the ancient castles of Mir and Nesvizh to the quiet, foggy lakes, Belarus is a land of history and nature. Dziakuj! That means “Thank you!”