Along the way, approximately every couple of kilometers, there were cars stuck in ditches, and the drivers stood on the roadside, waiting for someone to pull them out. It seems to me that this is due to several factors. There is no road lighting, no barriers, and, of course, driver drowsiness. These are probably the main problems during night journeys between cities. Around eleven o'clock in the evening, I succumbed to sleep, as its arrival could no longer be restrained.
I woke up around two o'clock in the morning due to the noise of a heavy downpour, which was so intense that the roads were barely visible. Dima asked us if we minded stopping somewhere along the way to wait out the rain and allow him and Artem to get some rest. Of course, we agreed because our goal was to arrive at our destination alive. Vitya informed our next driver that we were even further delayed and would arrive much later than planned, and we didn't know exactly when we would be in Saratov. He kindly agreed to pick us up when we arrived without changing the price.
Instead of two hours, we waited for nearly four hours and resumed our journey closer to six in the morning.
We reached Saratov around 10 o'clock in the morning, where a Kazakh driver in a Lada Granta was already waiting for us at the train station. The first thing I asked him was where I could find an ATM. Luckily, there was an ATM around the corner, just 50 meters away from us. Leaving our belongings in the car, Vitya and I headed towards the ATM.
I withdrew almost all the money, not only from my debit card but also from my credit cards. I was aware of the potential consequences this could have in the long run if I didn't repay the money back to the credit cards. Unfortunately, I didn't know and couldn't anticipate how much money I would need and whether I would be able to use credit cards once I was abroad.
After finishing this task, we returned to the car, and as soon as we got in, the driver informed us that we would make a stop at the airport to pick up three more passengers before heading to the "Ozinki" border. On the way to the airport, we asked the driver to stop at a store to buy something to eat for the journey.
A few kilometers from the airport, the driver asked us not to mention that we were paying 5,000 rubles per person because we had agreed on that price before the increase, and he didn't want to change the terms. However, the guys we were currently traveling with agreed to pay 12,000 rubles. According to him, the price had risen from 5,000 to 12,000 per person overnight. To avoid any problems with the driver, we agreed.