Mysterious, 66-year-old handwritten love letter in a bottle washes ashore amid WWII ruins
A long-lost love letter in a bottle that washed up on the shore of the Baltic Sea has sparked a mystery and hunt for its author, who wrote the note by hand 66 years ago, according to reports.
Two 10-year-old boys named Eryk and Kuba were playing in abandoned World War II forts on Stogi Beach in the town of Gdańsk in northern Poland when they found the bottle, according to TVP World.
Inside, they were amazed to find a handwritten love letter from 1959 — its ink faded but still legible. The boys couldn't make out the strange cursive style of writing, but an online sleuth on the local news website Trojmiasto.pl quickly transcribed it for them.
A decades-old love letter found washed up on the shore in a bottle has sparked a mystery.
nito – stock.adobe.com
The note was written by Rysia, a lovelorn woman taking a summer class in Tarnów, another Polish town 432 miles away from the beach where it finally washed up after decades, according to reports.
The note is filled with longing and hopes for the future, but also contains frank and honest confessions from the author.
It is addressed to a young man she called 'my beloved Bunny,' according to the local reports.
'My dear, I'm a terrible egoist, I only write about myself, but it is you I think about all the time,' she wrote, describing her long days and sleepless nights.
'Every roar of a motorbike (and there are a lot of them here) awakens memories of you through the window to the park that spreads out in front of me,' Rysia said.
Some parts of the letter hinted at a trace of resentment.
'I have a lot of time for dreams because lectures are only from 9 to 2 p.m. and the rest of the time is at my disposal,' she wrote. 'You could go wherever you want, but I sit alone.'
At times in the writing, it seemed like their relationship was new, as the author explained to Bunny what she was like and how she preferred to be alone.
'I assure you that I am quiet and modest, I don't strike up acquaintances with anyone — I simply avoid men,' Rysia wrote, looking forward to when she can finally return home.
'I have no desire for fun or walks,' she scrawled. 'There is no one familiar here.'
The letter and its passionate contents preserved after all these years have sparked speculation online about the intrigue between the two lovers from another era.
Both the treasure finders and online commenters fascinated by the message in the bottle are hoping to find Rysia and Bunny — or their descendants — and learn if their relationship has made after all these years.
The boys who found the bottle said they have been in contact with a museum in Tarnów in the hopes that the letter's author can be found, according to local reports.
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