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By Root 777 0

find the locals wandering the picturesque laneways, thrashing through shrubland, shuffling in the woods, and rifling through the long grass. A large sign sits by the road asking motorists to slow down as the ancient art of Irish road bowling is under way. Men, women, and children sprint along the tarmac and with a underswing that would put the Big Lebowski to shame, fling a 28-ounce metal ball along the road to their team members up ahead. They shout “bowling” to warn the innocent that a heavy metal projectile is in motion. The idea is to throw the ball as far as possible with the least amount of strokes over a course that varies between 1 and 2 miles in length. Each team member picks up where the previous thrower landed the ball and any stray must be hunted down in the thickets, hedges and rolling pastures this rural state is famous for.

When John Denver sang of West Virginia’s pastoral rural highways, he probably never imagined those same roadways loitered with ball hurlers. In fact, road bowling goes way back before the 1970’s radio hit. Back to the civil war, in fact, when a union troop of Irish soldiers called Mulligan’s Brigade fought the many battles that took place in this southern state that is not quite southern. Between skirmishes they picked up any spare cannonballs that lay around and took some R & R by indulging in some road bowling. The rolling green hills of West Virginia must have struck them as very similar to their own country where road bowling can be traced back to the 17th century.

Irish road bowling is taken seriously in Ireland, West Virginia.

One townland looks so much like Ireland it was called after it, and now Ireland, West Virginia, is the nucleus of a sport that is gaining in popularity and has events in places as far off as Chicago and New York. This small rural village is 90 miles (145km) north east of the state capital Charleston and home to the West Virginia Irish Road Bowling Association.

As one aficionado put it, “All you need is a $5 ball, a piece of chalk, and a road.” It is this ease and accessibility that makes the sport popular with all ages. Three generations of family members jog the roads, chasing balls and marking landing spots. In fact, it is not much different from an energetic country walk on a lazy afternoon with the occasional burst of energy and a keen sense of competitiveness. It’s enough to bowl you over. —CO’M

West Virginia Irish Road Bowling Association ( 202/387-1680;www.wvirishroadbowling.com).

When to Go: Spring and summer weekends.

Charleston (90 miles/145km).

$$ Embassy Suites Hotel Charleston, 337 Meeting St., Charleston ( 843/723-6900;www.embassysuites.com). $$ Hampton Inn Buckhannon, 1 Commerce Blvd., Buckhannon, WV ( 304/473-0900;www.hamptoninn.com).

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Wasserschlacts Street Food Fight

Apocalypse Chow

Berlin, Germany

It is not often you see a super hero wearing rubber gloves, a gas mask, and carrying a bin liner full of half eaten burgers. He passes the uneaten whoppers to his accomplice, who operates a giant catapult that will “whopper” the said burgers over a teeming crowd of food fighting warriors. They bear helmets, goggles, and rubber sticks and all are smeared in rotten food that varies from mushy tomatoes to soggy gherkins. The crowd faces off in the middle of a city bridge in Berlin and chants and screams before unleashing every type of wet and slicky substance imaginable, including rotten fish and dirty diapers. Gunk and slime cover everything and soon it looks like a medieval battle in a landfill site with everybody whacking each other with foam sticks and shields fashioned from garbage can lids and hubcaps. Is it any wonder the event known as the Wasserschlacts is sponsored by a waste disposal company?

The event is all the more bizarre for its setting. The ornate Oberbaumbrucke bridge is a city landmark designed in a German gothic style with red brick arches, two pointy towers, and cross vaults. It is more used to genteel tourists strolling its two-deck structure than a thousand food anarchists clashing on the ramparts. Indeed as