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Time Capsule Left by Russian Travellers in the Arctic Floats to Ireland

The capsule was left in the Arctic by a resident of Saint Petersburg during a polar cruise aboard the nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy

6 November 2020

The time capsule left by Russian travellers in the northern polar region ended up off the coast of Ireland two years later. The two Irish surfers' find was reported by the Irish Independent.

'We thought it was a bomb or someone’s ashes… we didn’t want to open it,' Sophie Curran said in an interview. The girl and her friend Conor McClory were surfing in Gweedore (County Donegal), where they found a cylindrical object with an inscription in Russian. Once, with the help of a Russian-speaking acquaintance, the two surfers found out that this was a time capsule, they did not hesitate to open it. 'There was a huge amount of photographs, a map with a tourist route of the Arctic, a restaurant menu, letters, souvenir cork coasters...,' said Sophie Curran.

Sophie and Conor discovered the contact details of one of the polar travellers, who turned out to be a Saint Petersburg based blogger Svetlana. 'She was shocked when we phoned her and told her about our find,' Sophie continued. 'Svetlana said that they were taking a polar cruise aboard the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear-powered icebreaker and buried the capsule in the snow at ninety degrees north.' According to Sophie, Russian tourists expected their letter to make such a long journey, but over a far greater period of time. Nevertheless, after only two years the capsule ended up in Ireland, having travelled four thousand kilometres.

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