title: Fastest way to convert a dict's keys & values from str to Unicode?
body: <p>I'm working with a counter <code>from collections import Counter</code> and I want to print its values using <code>matplotlib.pylot</code>.</p>
  
  <p>When I try to do it using:</p>
  
  <pre><code>plt.bar(range(len(cnt)), cnt.values(), align='center')
  plt.xticks(range(len(cnt)), cnt.keys())
  plt.show()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get the following error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>ValueError: matplotlib display text must have all code points &lt; 128 or use Unicode strings</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>That's why I'm trying to convert the Counter dictionary keys to Unicode.</p>