Hello, sorry for late response.
It also heavily depends on which part of 'Northern Europe' OP supposedly lived in, but the access to the Low Countries, especially Bruges in now Belgium would be very important for this question, except for the case if OP lived in eastern France or middle or southern Germany (then crossing-Alpine route was available), or, in Russia (the waterways to the Black Sea was usually available, though the river pirates as well as the possible unstable relationship between the local principalities and the Mongols (Golden horde) might be problematic in some cases).
About the end of the 13th century, the maritime transportation of medieval Europe drastically changed: Two hitherto mostly separate maritime worlds, namely the Mediterranean in the south and the Northern seas (the North Sea and the Baltic Sea) in the north was then connected via the Atlantic, mainly by the endeavor of Italian merchants and their ships. They also crossed the Alps, and settled in the diaspora up to some towns in England and to the low countries like Bruges. The Merchant's Handbook, compiled by the Florentine Merchant in (sorry for a silly mistypo) Pegolotti in 1340s, made a note on which part of England the high quality woolen product was produced as well as where across Europe the fair was regularly held.
Since this establishment of the direct maritime route to the Mediterranean and of Italian merchants' diaspora settlement, Bruges developed primarily as the commercial as well as financial hub of North-Western Europe. When the Pope had to transport the money as well as the goods from Northern Europe either to Avignon or to Rome for collecting the crusader tax or some fees from local churchmen, he generally assigned the merchant who had a branch office in Bruges as his agent.
You also had merchant branch office in 14th century Bruges mainly of two powerful Italian cities, Venice and Genoa, to negotiate your goods to the Balkans, another problem rose here: While Genoan merchants generally had dominance in the Western Mediterranean and the Atlantic route up to the Black Death, Venice had a stronger connection in the Balkans due to her involvement with the Byzantine Empire. In the 13th century, Venice built oversea 'colonies' in ex-Byzantine Empire across the Eastern Mediterranean, but Genoa competed their political dominance vehemently, especially in the Black Sea where both the important local product like alum and the product from the Silk road were available. Venice also established the regular maritime trade route to Bruges in 1325 onward, but if OP lived in the early decades in the 14th century, they might have had difficulty in finding the Italian merchant in Brugge who had a local connection also in the Balkans.
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