The lure for travellers is rather the opposite: the great outdoors, the extraordinary freak-of-nature landscape – where a volcano or glacier might be a short drive from a Caribbean-style beach – with perhaps a shot of extreme-sport adrenaline thrown in.
Svenonius described Nation of Ulysses performances as "an extraordinary freak-out kind of thing really masochistic, lots of blood cacophonous, and violent, and aggressive".
The Hungarian-trained sprinter is clearly a freak, whose extraordinary talent has not received the attention it deserves, thanks partly to the French racing authorities and their tragicomic scenes that followed their attempt to start the Prix de l'Abbaye in October.
Maybe so, but Lincecum earned his nickname, the Freak, for his extraordinary athleticism.
But more striking still, it makes the extraordinary ordinary again, allowing the "Freak" to become Auggie Pullman, a kid at a school.
In fact, it is those extremely rare and extraordinary people who are the freaks.
"The event that started in Toowoomba can only be described as a complete freak of nature, an extraordinary deluge that almost came out of nowhere," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Ms Bligh as saying.
The rational response of dairy farmers was to produce a freak cow, hardwired to produce extraordinary amounts of milk.
Moran lurches from intense ragtime into jabbering improvisations, while his horns also freak out, often playing an extraordinary series of sounds that sound like a tape being reversed.
Seizing the initiative in the darkness is Pierre, who takes the opportunity to invite the memorial group round to Claire's, where, he promises, they will witness an "absolutely extraordinary" experience, selling his revelation like some freak show ringmaster.
