How can you use string methods like strip() on a unicode string? and can't you access characters of a unicode string like with oridnary strings? (ex: mystring[0:4] )

It's working as usual, as long as they are actually unicode, not str (note: every string literal must be preceded by u, like in this example):

>>> a = u"coțofană"
>>> a
u'co\u021bofan\u0103'
>>> a[-1]
u'\u0103'
>>> a[2]
u'\u021b'
>>> a[3]
u'o'
>>> a.strip(u'ă')
u'co\u021bofan'