places

When I was really young I used to think that when someone said "the winner will be chosen at random" that Random was a place!

Paul

When I first learned about George Washington crossing the Delaware, I thought that "delaware" was a word for a body of water somewhat bigger than a stream, but smaller than a river.

C.C.

In Hong Kong there's a Catholic secondary school called Mary Knoll College which has lovely red-brick neo-classical buildings, and to my young eyes that style of architecture exemplify the American landscape that I sometimes saw on travel programmes on TV.

So when one day my family drove by that college in a car and I saw those majestic red brick buildings whizzing by (there was also a white steepled church as well) I couldn't believe it and asked out loud, 'Have we driven to America already?'

Mandy

I grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada where a lot of places are named in Native Canadian (ie, tatamagouche, etc) and we used to drive by a place called Musquodobit Harbour on our way to Clam Harbour beach. I always thought it was called Mosquito Bite Harbour and thought I would never like to go there!!

Jude Horrocks

My father took me on a bus past Blackwall Tunnel - a Victorian road tunnel under the river Thames with an imposing building above the entrance. "See that" he said "that takes people all the way under the river" For a long time I thought that the windows and doors were closed and the whole building slid down under the river, like some kind of submarine ferryboat.

Mike B. London

I used to believe that Illinois was a kingdom and that America was made of fifty kingdoms that had agreed not to have wars with each other.

Anon

During my first years at school we had an outline map of the world on our classroom wall. I often wondered why someone had written the word 'and' in the bottom right corner near Australia. Years later I realised that this was New Zealand.

Mike B. London

I used to believe that all countries could only be countries if they were islands.i live in England, so grew up thinking that.so when i saw a map and things i didn't understand how somewhere could be a country if there were other places around it.So you can imagine me getting confused when i thought the whole of Europe was an entire country.

Katie

when I was about 10 I used to sit in Benhill Rec, a park in Sutton, surrey. In the distance I could see what I believed to be the eiffel tower. It wasn't till a few years later I realised it was a electricity pylon in Croydon

linda hurst

i used to believe that hawaii was located right south of florida. hey, they both have great weather!

ashley

When I was younger my grndad used to take me to villages outside canterbury on sundays after tea for an ice cream and a bottle of stella. He would tell me that we had left England and had gone to russia...I believed it...maybe I was drunk????

Steve Dobson

Until very recently (I am 13), I thought "Islam" was a country - apologies to any Muslims reading this. I guess I got it confused with Iran. For those that don't know, Islam is a religion.

Rachel

Until last year when I was 13 I never bothered to think out how a map worked, in relation to the round earth. I thought that if you went north from here (Canada) and you went past the Arctic you would be in Antarctica!

tina

I took a little boy to Luray Caverns, Virginia, an underground cave system. It was much cooler in the caverns than it was outside, the little boy was surprised that it wasn't hotter since we were closer to the earth's molten hot core underground.

Kristen

I don't remember much about when I was a kid. But the one thing I do remember is; that I could walk from my house to anywhere I had ever been in relatively a short time. I tried to prove this and got lost.

Justynn Tyme

While growing up in upstate New York, whenever my sister and I would be fighting or causing a ruckus, my mother would often say, "You kids are making me crazy! You're going to drive me to Poughkeepsie!" (Referring to a large Mental Hospital that used to be in that city.) Not knowing anything about the hospital, I used to think that Poughkeepsie was a city over-run with insane mommies that had been dropped off in the streets by their children. I still laugh when I get this image in my head.

EricS

As kids, when we used to ask ourdad where we would be going on our summer holidays, he would say "Ourgate" We believed that "Ourgate" was a place, in fact it was our garden gate - meaning we wern't having a holiday at all!

Anon

when i was about 4 or 5 i ALWAYS thought that the world was just my little town callled stone. i believed this for years untill i learnt otherwise.

Gummie

I used to think that in every country there was an exact copy of you but they spoke another language…… I used to think that my copy person would get washed up on a beach and id be able to talk to her ;)

moi