13-year old Daniil Korotkikh was walking along the Curonian Spit, a 60-mile stretch of sand dune that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea Coast, when he spotted something sparkling in the sand. The curious boy went to check it out, and discovered what appeared to be an old German beer bottle sealed with a ceramic plug, inside which, was a rolled up letter.

The excited Russian boy took the bottle to his father, who carefully extracted the rolled up note that had been sealed with a band-aid and placed inside a plastic bag. As luck would have it, Daniil's father was conversant in the German language and could translate the note which read as follows -

'My name is Frank, and I'm five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you.'

While Frank had included his address in the letter, it had been written in 1987, which meant, that the chances of him still being there, were slim. However, Daniil decided to try and respond anyway. Turns out that while the now 29-year old Frank has moved, his parents still live at the same place in Coesfeld, Russia. In fact, it had been Frank's father who had written the note for the five-year old, something he recalled quite clearly.

Frank and Daniil have since 'met' each other, through video conferencing and plan to keep in touch regularly in the future. So the next time you are thinking of tossing a message inside a bottle, go for it, because you just never know!

Resources: telegraph.co.uk