>>> s='Loď v úžině' >>> u=s.decode('UTF-8') >>> u=s.decode('UTF8') >>> type(s) str >>> type(u) unicode >>> s 'Lo\xc4\x8f v \xc3\xba\xc5\xbein\xc4\x9b' >>> u u'Lo\u010f v \xfa\u017ein\u011b' >>> print s[2] � >>> print s[3] � >>> print s[2:4] ď >>> print u[2] ď >>> len(s) 15 >>> len(u) 11 >>> abc=u'Loď v úžině' >>> abc u'Lo\u010f v \xfa\u017ein\u011b' >>> u u'Lo\u010f v \xfa\u017ein\u011b'