I used to think that Norwich was Britains answer to Las Vegas, all because of the glamourous image projected by Nicholas Parsons and Sale of the Century. Palm trees, big cars, beautiful women.
Sadly, this belief persisted until I was 19 or so, and actually went to Norwich, and found out it was a dump.

Loz H

My Mum couldn't understand why I kept crying everytime she mentioned going on holiday until I told her that I didn't want to live in a pipe. I had seen refugees on TV sheltering from a flood in huge concrete pipes and believed they were in Wales, where we were going on holiday.

Charlotte

I used to believe that for on this side of the world, three leaf clovers were common, and four leaf clovers were lucky. But on the OTHER side of the world it was the opposite. Lots of four leaf clovers and not so many lucky three leaf clovers. I used to dream about going to the "other side of the world" and picking enough four leaf clovers to last a lifetime, and bringing them back to this side of the world so they'd be lucky.

Wish I was a leprechaun

I used to believe that the city of Tokyo was really ruined by incredibly huge monsters every week, just like in those old japanese series.

G.Albo

I used to believe that countries really had their names written across them and that when you reached a border there would be a red dotted line on the ground.

Looby

When I was 4 or 5, we took a family trip to North Carolina. As we were driving back, it was getting late and my mother mentioned that we were getting close to Pennsylvania. My father then said "Uh-oh, it's getting late! I hope it's not closed!" For the longest time after that I really believed that certain states closed at night, and everyone had to leave and come back in the morning.

I wonder if parents realize that kids take everything literally!

Phil

When I was 3-4 years old, my grandmother went on a trip to Scotland. We, as a family went to the airport to drop her off. We watched her sit down in the departures lounge, on the other side of the baggage check. I remember thnking to myself "Scotland" didn't look like a very fun place.

Poor mislead fool

i believed that england was a medieval country without cars and telephones. the reason was that i watched the silver jubilee of queen elizabeth II. on the telly in 1977 and there were only horses and old uniforms. the announcer was also referring to queen elizabeth I. who had lived in the middle ages. logically, number one is mother of number two - how exactly elizabeth II. could ever manage to live from 14hundredsomething til this day i couldn't sort out but it was amazing to know that there was a medieval country still in existance.
i also thought that latin america had to do with ancient rome and people would walk around in togas, live in colosseum- and temple-like buildings and speak latin

german geographer

When I was a little girl, I made a point of memorizing each country's flag so that if I was ever kidnapped and ended up in a strange place, I'd know where I was.

texasbabe

I used to think that you could actually dig a hole to China and set about attempting it when I was about four. My mother found me in the backyard, trowel in one hand and a suitcase in the other, and asked me what I was doing. I informed her that I was going to China for the week and I would be back in time for church.

texasbabe

I used to believe that Florida was really heaven becuase we would fly through the clouds to get there and it was filled with many old people, including my grandparents.

Jason

I used to look at a map of the world and think that it was only half of the world, and that when I flipped over the map, the other half of the world should be there. I would demand "but where is the other half of the world?" and become very distressed that grownups apparently weren't alarmed that half of the world was missing, which made me think that they were being brainwashed and I was the only one who knew that some greater power was trying to hoodwink us, or else the other half of the world didn't show up on the map because it wasn't discovered yet. I swore to become an explorer and find the other half of the world when I grew up. And yup -- I love traveling the world, though I know all the major landmasses are where they are supposed to be.

moon grocer

I used to think I could go to a country like Australia, see what the winning lottery numbers were, then fly back to Ireland in time to play those numbers anf become a millionaire. It didn't help that my aunt encouraged this belief.

Clare, Ireland

As a child, after I found out that "urine" is the "proper" word for pee, but before anyone had told me how to spell it, I was studying maps. I looked at maps of various places, including the great lakes region. When I first saw Lake Huron on a map, I thought h-u-r-o-n might be the way to spell that new word, urine, that I'd recently learned, so I really wondered about Lake Huron. I was well learned enough by then to think it extremely unlikely that there was literally a giant lake of pee there between Michigan and Ontario. But I thought the lake must have been named derogatorily by someone who perceived something inpure or unaesthetic about its waters. Even though this was a confusion on my part, it might have just given me a head start for later being aware of water pollution!

Janice

When I was a child, I used to believe that USA is a state of Poland, and someday we go there for a trip like we were doing this to Warsaw :)

nocnyMark

I used to think that the faces on Mt. Rushmore was a natural phenomenon. Of course, I grew up in Canada so it wasn't like they bore resemblance to the guys on my money.

gihrose

When I was very young, probably six or seven, I thought the D.C. in Washington D.C. stood for "Decorated by Columbus".
I imagined Columbus running about ballet style flinging columns and buildings and painting the sky patriotic. Oddly, I never thought it was "Discovered by Columbus", probably because that wouldn't lead to such entertaining images. ;)

Tom S.

I used to think that The Great Wall of China was made out of porcelain.

Morten Vestergaard

When I was about 5, my family went to New Hampshire and saw the Old Man of the Mountain. My parents were pointing at it and asking me if I could see the old man. Well, here I was thinking there really was this old man up there and wondering why we were bothering him, staring at him like that!

Lisa

Diana, Princess of Wales was a confusing title to a seven year old girl. Unaware that Wales was part of the UK, I thought she was princess of the big, underwater mammals. I wanted to be Princess of Dolphins. Still do, actually...

Xornia