I haven't met Ciwas but Fatih and Turgay helped me find this place. It's clean, nice bed, bathroom, kitchen.
Location wise it's 10 min walk from metro station, Gezi park, and my favorite part was night time in the streets, people are very energetic, tried some new food, visited some attractions.
I recommend buying a Instabul card (kart) for travelling (get one inside metro station, yellow atm), using metro and Maramaray (different train lines), and some buses to experience life of a everyday Istanbul citizen (refil the card often because using urban transport isn't that cheap).