Downloads folder (windows 7)

When I download a file, it is saved to my "downloads" folder. When I need to access the file, what I see in the Downloads folder depends on the path I take. For instance, if I begin at the "start" button, then select my user account, then the downloads folder, I get a certain combination of files and folders showing in the window. The bar at the top of the window shows start>mike>downloads. If I begin with the Start button but select "computer", C drive, users, mike, downloads, then the bar at the top shows boot(C:)>users>mike>downloads, and the contents of the folder are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. All the contents of both these "downloads" folders are recognisable to me as stuff that I have downloaded at some time, and mine is the only user account on this computer. To further confuse matters, after a download, if I click on "show all downloads" in the bottom right corner, then "open downloads folder" at top right, I get a window showing the contents of the first example above, but the filepath of the second. Can anyone explain what is going on? (By the way, I began with home computers in the days of DOS, before Windows, when a folder was a folder, and lived in one place, and had predictable contents, and could be found by working your way down the tree. Call me old fashioned.)