When I first came across Darkwater Pass, I thought the little pond outside looked very pretty and that inside would be a pleasant cavern. How wrong I was...

One that comes to mind if Mara's Eye Pond. The place looks peaceful on the outside, but when you go underground, turns out there are a couple Vampires waiting for you.

Castle Volkihar, Boy was I proven wrong. They don't like vampire lords there for some reason. (???)

That place with the big skull on the door...

Turns out it's full of murderous cultists.

I expected Winterhold to be an actual city, or at least be more than half a village.

maybe, I just can't resist? but, when I read these questions the first thing I think is how small and unpopulated the "cities" are. sorry, but, a tad bit more realistic populace would be great.

I expected the imperials city in skyrim to be mammoth: great artwork doesn't count!

whiterun also disappointed.

strangely, I thought windhelm wasn't too far off, though, a tad bigger is obvious, for me.

Alot of the cities (Winterhold, Dawnstar, Morthal) were scaled down too much for my liking. Especially when compared to Oblivion's which felt like their were adequately sized for the game.

Dawnstar looked cozy and inviting from a distance. Quant little fishing village built in the small inlet with a few ships. Closer inspection of the place revealed to me its really rather boring. And unless your doing the two daedric quests, I can never really find a good reason to go there at all. The city has nothing to offer at all.

Numerous caves and things I thought looked cool from the outside and nearly met my death on the inside heh

I completely agree. it was a complete lack of a village except per future questing.

they better get it right with the next game.

I really wish there was more to Winterhold. The great collapse itself a cool concept, but to just leave the "city" as the college and 4 buildings was just really disappointing. On top of that there is no house to purchase of build. Just leaves the whole area feeling like a big waste of space.

It's all the green of that VL skin.

This for me.

Agreed. I know we are talking about the province of Skyrim where battle prowess is admired more than magical ability, but the College of Winterhold would attract students from all over Tamriel and those students would want to be able to relax in the town after studying. The coin the students brought with them should make Winterhold grow into more than just a paltry shack village.

The invisible chest

I wasn't planned for what lies within Frostflow Lighthouse the first time I went inside.