Image caption Zoe Averianov threw the letter into the sea when she was a schoolgirl 
 
 A woman who threw a message in a bottle into the North Sea more than 20 years ago has received a reply after it was discovered in the Netherlands. Zoe, who has since married and lives in Salford, tossed the letter into the sea as she left Hull on a ferry for a family holiday to Germany when she was just 10. MEN Zoe Lemon as a schoolgirl, with her letter 
 
 Piet was walking his dog in the Oosterschelde dykes, near where he and his wife Jacqueline live in Serooskerke, when he found the bottle with Zoe’s letter inside. The envelope, addressed to Ms Averianov's maiden name, contained her original letter and a reply from a couple in the Netherlands. I know you are no longer a little girl but you asked me to write you so I have.”
– A UK woman got a pretty unexpected Christmas card this holiday season—a response to a 23-year-old message in a bottle she'd dropped in the North Sea as a child. While on a ferry from England to Belgium in 1990, Zoe Lemon—now Zoe Averianov—wrote a note explaining, "Dear finder, my name is Zoe Lemon. Please would you write to me, I would like it a lot." She added, "I am 10 years old and I like ballet, playing the flute and the piano. I have a hamster called Sparkle and fish called Speckle," and dropped it from the boat in a plastic bottle, the BBC reports. Fast forward to today, and Averianov, 33, says she's surprised just how far the message traveled—more than 350 miles. "My parents came to visit on Christmas Day and they had this letter from Europe addressed to my maiden name," she says. It turns out, the note washed ashore in the Netherlands, where Piet and Jacqueline Lateur found it, then returned it with a message of their own. "I know you are no longer a little girl but you asked me to write you so I have," the response read in part, per the Mirror. Piet and Averianov have kept up the communication, though this time, email is their method of choice. (But her note just isn't quite as old as what may be the oldest message found in a bottle.)