If We Give You an Animal and a Town, Can You Name the European Country?

A "running of the bulls" (in Spanish, an "encierro") occurs when a group of six or more cattle are loosed in city streets and people run with them. It's an exciting but sometimes dangerous event held across Spain to celebrate the nine-day Festival of Saint Fermin. The most well-known bull run happens in Pamplona.

Legend has it that Pat chased all the snakes into the sea after they attacked him while he was fasting on a hilltop. However, since all evidence suggests that Ireland never had any snakes to begin with, it's more likely that the snakes of lore were a metaphor for pagan druids.

Around 40% of Belarus is covered in forest, and it's often called "the lungs of Europe." The European bison, its national animal, is the heaviest land mammal surviving in Europe. About 600 of them roam the Bialowieza Forest.

The rooster was used as a religious symbol of faith and hope dating back to the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance, it became associated with the emerging nation of France, and by the 19th century, it was flown on flags and used to rally fighters during the French Revolution.

According to Polish legend, three brothers (Lech, Czech and Rus) went hunting and, following prey in different directions, ended up settling different lands and founding different Slavic countries. Venturing north, Lech encountered a white eagle against a red setting sun and counted it as a good omen, inspiring the design for today's Polish flag.

A bezoar is a wild goat-antelope creature. (It's also the name for a small, stone-line mass that forms in the stomachs of certain mammals.) Anadyr is far away from its home territory, on the Asian side of this massive country.

The Turul is a mythological bird from Hungarian lore, depicted like a hawk or falcon. In legend, the Arpad Clan (which ruled during Hungary's golden age) descended from a Turul and a woman named Emese.

According to legend, twins Romulus and Remus were abandoned and thrown into the Tiber River after birth by their war goddess mother. They were rescued by a she-wolf, raised by a shepherd and Romulus, after killing his brother, went on to found Rome at the site of the wolf's den.

In fact, reindeer don't live at the North Pole at all, since that's located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. They live in Northern Europe, Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Siberia and Northern Asia.

The British bulldog may be slobbery, but they're certainly cute. If you travel to Bath, England, you can visit some of the ancient Roman bathhouses for which it was named. (Just don't try to bathe in them.)

Like all of the above options (plus Turkey), Kazakhstan straddles the Asian and European continents. Its deserts and steppes provide homes for a very different array of animals than seen elsewhere in Europe.

If you really want to appreciate the puffins, venture farther away from Oslo (the capital) to the village of Bleik between June and August. Hundreds of thousands of puffins flock to the area to breed!

The mute swan is the national animal of Denmark, and the practice of ringing birds began there. This particular bird died in 2008 and based on its tags, it was about 40 years old at the time! The previous record had been 28.

The ancient Greek city of Athens was burned down by the Persian king, Xerxes, following his victory at the Battle of Thermopylae. Ultimately, the Greeks won the wars and Athens was rebuilt.

This is one of the oldest national symbols, many historians tracing the black eagle on the German coat of arms back to the 8th-century rule of Charlemagne, king of the Germanic tribe called the Franks.

The Swiss city of Lucerne is located within the Alps. The chamois is a sure-footed goat-antelope species native to this mountain range and others across Europe. They also live in New Zealand, although they aren't native to that neck of the woods.

The capital city of this small, Baltic state is Tallinn, known for its spectacular medieval (and more recent) architecture. We have it on good authority that the barn swallow will happyily nest in any of these buildings, not limiting itself to strictly barns.

Portugal's octopus dishes may be delicious (as are those of neighboring Spanish province, Galicia) but scientific research into the intelligence of these cephalopods is giving more and more people pause when it comes to eating them.

Lithuania is home to large numbers of migratory white storks. They're believed to bring peace, joy and harmony to families upon whose lands they nest ... and yes, much like in America they're believed to bring babies, too.

Historians don't seem entirely certain why the lion on the Czech state emblem has two tails. There's speculation that it dates back to Premysl Otakar II, who ruled as King of Bohemia during the 13th century.

Tucked away in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France, Andorra is the only country whose national language is Catalan. The residents are known for their prodigious alcohol consumption (among other, finer qualities).

Georgia is located in the Caucasus Mountains at the border of Europe and Asia. Dmanisi, a 1.8 million-year-old archaeological site, is home to some of the earliest examples of hominids outside of Africa.

The Caucasian lynx is a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, archaeological evidence dates sites at Yerevan to the 3rd-6th millennium BCE. Following that, the fortress Yerbuni dates to 783 BCE.

Until February of 2019, North Macedonia was just called "Macedonia." Following a decades-old dispute with its southern neighbor, Greece, it added the prefix to differentiate it from the Greek province of the same name.

Belgrade, which is also the capital of Serbia, is located where the Danube and Sava rivers meet. Wolves are central to Serbian lore and poetry, so much so that Vuk ("wolf") is a very popular boys' name in Serbian.

Although technically part of Moldova, Transnistria (also called Transdniestria, officially called the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) has its own de facto government. Oh, and the auroch was a type of bison that was hunted to extinction in the 17th century.

Most of Turkey lies on the Asian continent, but its capital, Istanbul, is split down the middle. A small section of Turkey to the west of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) falls in Europe.

This Mediterranean island nation gained independence from Britain in 1960. Long subject to dispute between Greece and Turkey, Cyprus's northern portion declared independence in 1983 as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This was only recognized by Turkey, although there is a de facto Turkish government in place there.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Although Serbia, Russia and many others don't recognize its independence (and thus it isn't in the United Nations), the US and most members of the European Union do recognize it as a country.

The first documented humans began arriving in Iceland in the 9th century from Norway, and with them came various types of animals. Before that, the Arctic fox was the only land mammal whatsover; the other animals were all sea critters and birds.

The national sport in Azerbaijan is Chovgan or Chovken, an equestrian sport not totally unlike polo that dates back at least to the first millenium A.D., although certain historians cite its origins to the 5th century B.C.E.

Malta is a small island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, located off the southern coast of Sicily. Strangely enough, it's the Pharoah Hound that's its national animal rather than the more obvious-sounding dog choice, the Maltese.

Typical of Central Europe, animals like deer, rabbits, foxes, pheasants, badgers, etc. are common in Austria. It's an Alpine nation, so you'll also find plenty of chamois, groundhogs and eagles.

A few other species are said to be only native to Slovenia, the Lipizzaner horse and the Carniolan honeybee. Slovenia is renowned around the world as a nation of beekeepers. According to pri.org, there are 10,000 beekeepers in Slovenia, out of a population of 5 million. That's one beekeeper for every 200 people!

At 0.17 square miles, Vatican City (also called the Holy See) is the smallest country on the planet. It's the seat of the Catholic pope, and it's fully contained within the much larger Italian city of Rome.