diff --git a/rowers/polarstuff.py b/rowers/polarstuff.py
index c4cc0ced..dc4f397a 100644
--- a/rowers/polarstuff.py
+++ b/rowers/polarstuff.py
@@ -124,7 +124,8 @@ def get_polar_notifications():
     try:
         headers = { 'Authorization': 'Basic %s' % base64.b64encode(auth_string) }
     except TypeError:
-        headers = { 'Authorization': 'Basic %s' % base64.b64encode(bytes(auth_string,'utf-8')) }
+        headers = { 'Authorization': 'Basic %s' % base64.b64encode(
+            bytes(auth_string,'utf-8')).decode('utf-8') }
 
     response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)