The apartment we stayed at has a great location in the historic center of the city, just 10 minutes away from Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque, in the shoemakers' district (very interesting to observe). Once you get a hang of how to navigate the city, you start to appreciate the location. The apartment itself is nice, but small, probably a little too small for a group of five, but we didn't mind. Hikmet provided everything we needed: an iron, a hairdryer, etc. He responded quickly to all our messages and helped with things as much as he could: organized a transfer to and from the airport and even shared his hookah with us :) Hikmet is an outstanding host, he cooked us breakfast on our first morning in Istanbul, which we enjoyed on the terrace on the roof of the building (also great for midnight beers) and an amazingly delicious dinner. Hikmet has a great sense of humor, which I guess is something you need to deal with a constant flow of difficult Russian tourists ;) We enjoyed his company and would definitely recommend his place to those coming to Istanbul!
Thank you Hikmet!
Efendi and the other 4 :)