Is breakfast in the Balkans only coffee?

Question

I went through Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria recently, and noticed that in the morning, the local cafe are full of people but everyone only orders a cup espresso or a bottle of water. Is that the norm (ie. not eating any solid food for breakfast) or am I missing something?

Answer 1

I can speak only for Bulgaria, but I assume it‘s simular for the other two countries. Many cafes don‘t offer any food or just some cakes, people go there just to meet each other, to see and to be seen. Sometimes people stay there for hours and drink only one cup of coffee. They prefer to eat at home, because it‘s cheaper.

Answer 2

Often it's common to have a coffee before breakfast in the Balkans, apparently. However, there are a lot of breakfasts there too, e.g. just look at a recipe website and see items like kaymak, ceshket, popara and more.