I loved my stay in Balat so much, I'm going back and booked another one of Mehmet's listings. Balat is an incredible neighborhood: vibrant, colorful and retains a lot of traditional Turkish culture although it is still becoming more modernized which has brought in a lot of great restaurants. Hands down my favorite neighborhood in Istanbul. As a woman traveling alone, I was told by my taxi driver upon drop off that I need to be really careful in this neighborhood at night. I took the precaution of making sure I was always home before dark, but honestly, I never once felt unsafe in this neighborhood. Something to note: the building this Airbnb is in is beautiful, clean and modern, but the block surrounding it is a little run down and there seems to be a bit of construction taking place. It's about a 3 minute walk from the lively Main Street of Balat and easy to get to a lot of cute restaurants and coffee shops. I was working remotely while there and hosting large zoom meetings- the wifi was perfect. Mehmet was kind enough to store one of my large suitcases for me in his office on the first floor of the building while I'm in Cappadocia for the week so I booked another one of his listings in the building for when I get back to Istanbul. I guarantee if you stay with Mehmet you will also want to keep coming back!