diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 1bde538..4f7d7cb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ var/
 *.egg-info/
 .installed.cfg
 *.egg
+.eggs
 
 # PyInstaller
 #  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
diff --git a/version.py b/version.py
index 25976ed..63951d6 100644
--- a/version.py
+++ b/version.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 import pkg_resources
 
 version_file = pkg_resources.resource_stream(__name__, "VERSION")
-VERSION = version_file.readline().strip()
+VERSION = version_file.readline().decode("utf-8").strip()